Another era. When the tepees of the Prévalaye leisure center were built, the president of our country was called Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. We paid in francs, CDs did not exist and the first names Jules and Louise were rare in maternity wards, parents preferring Nicolas, Sébastien or Céline and Virginie. It was in the heart of 1980 that the city of Rennes decided to erect these Indian imitation tents in the very wild sector of Prévalaye to offer a piece of nature to its youngest inhabitants. For more than forty years, thousands of children have passed under these slate-topped teepees to play, draw, build or simply rest there. Until Friday, children could still run around these strange constructions which served mainly as storage rooms for equipment. Not for a very long time.
At the dawn of the new school year, the leisure center saw the last children leave. The opportunity for the city of Rennes to wonder about the future of this site, which has the particularity of only being used during school holidays, as a holiday centre. “We plan to make it a third place in order to facilitate classes outside,” explains Gaëlle Rougier, education assistant.
Worrying pollution in some tepees
Acclaimed by more and more institutes, outdoor education is not possible in a good number of schools in Rennes, which are sometimes isolated in an urban fabric that is not conducive to contact with nature. This requalification will allow the city to welcome children all week, and not just during the holidays. “It’s a privileged natural setting with partners around it. It will have multiple uses, ”says the elected ecologist. Two yurts should be installed there.
Before investing the place, the city will have to part with its famous tepees. Of the 35 constructions, several have air pollution problems. Recent analyzes have shown high concentrations of formaldehyde, a colorless and flammable gas often marketed in liquid form commonly called formaldehyde. “It often comes from the glues used for wood. We couldn’t really carry out work to transform them, it would be too complicated, ”explains Gaëlle Rougier. They will therefore have to be demolished and buried with years of laughter and memories. “We are going to build a new identity for this place”, assures the elected official. Goodbye tepees.