The announcement was made a few days ago on social networks. In Marseille, every year, the news reminds us that summer is looming, just like the sun which sets later and later, the people who laze more and more on the beach of the Catalans and the terraces which fill up at sight. This Friday, the Cabane des Amis will reopen for a new summer season in this place which has become in a few years a must for Marseille evenings.
In this small, colorful wooden house, which houses a dance bar that has become very trendy, tourists and locals from Marseille meet each summer to dance and drink on the beach facing the sunset. A setting that delights night owls… and Instagrammers. The formula is also applied in other neighboring huts which house dance bars on the same model, with their feet in the sand of the beaches of the Prado, a large artificial strip built with the residues of the work of the Marseille metro.
“Permit to demolish”
And this Friday, under a beautiful sun of circumstance, the Cabane des Amis reopens its doors. Except for one detail. La Cabane des Amis has been ordered to move. No more parties with your feet in the sand: you have to leave the little wooden house and build another one on a dike, near the Huveaune. On the small hut, a sheet is plastered and without appeal. “Permit to demolish” A few weeks ago, the State decided to clean up the sands of Marseilles, and to strictly apply the Littoral law. No more Marseille exceptions. Move on, we have to go.
“The Prado seaside resort, covering more than 50 hectares, was created and then operated through works and operating concessions established from the 1980s onwards during the metro works, confirms to 20 minutes the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône. Since then, the beaches have been subject to increased attendance and a multiplicity of uses of the sea and an evolution of the coastline. »
And to add: “The State and the city of Marseille have now agreed on the need to free up beach areas, by demolishing permanent buildings, to apply current law on the management of the maritime public domain. . “These cabins are considered to be built on the sea, on the maritime public domain, explains Hervé Menchon, deputy mayor in charge of the sea. This question was not a priority for the State in previous years, but we We had this injunction to demolish the huts that are the Sablines, the Mama beach, the Huttes marines and the Lookout also known as the Cabane des amis. We find ourselves in the obligation to demolish these cabins. It’s non-negotiable. »
A preserved cabin?
According to the deputy mayor, the bulldozers will begin their work in the fall, so as not to interfere during the summer period. “It’s true that we don’t understand, confides Benjamin Aguad, one of the founders and boss of the Cabane des Amis. We are going to destroy something that has been given such a strong identity. It is not understandable. After all, I don’t make the laws. But hey, we were able to bounce back, and in the end, it’s a blessing in disguise. Admittedly, we don’t have the beach and direct access to the sea. We’re on a slab, but with a 180-degree view of Marseille, we offer a lot more dishes, we have more tables…”
Only one of these four cabins on the Prado beaches could escape disappearance, in the name of heritage interest. “From what I know, we have received a strange opinion from the architects of the buildings of France, who consider that the architecture of the sea huts represents a symptomatic image of the seaside life of an era, with the statue of David nearby, thinks he knows Hervé Menchon. So we are waiting to see if they allow us to demolish or not. “Like the last vestige of a somewhat special time, when tolerance bordered on illegality, and which the State now wants to be over.