Nestled between Cap Blanc-Nez and Cap Gris-Nez, Wissant (Pas-de-Calais) is a small, untamed paradise, popular with kitesurfers and snowboarders.
A haven threatened since the 1990s, when blockhouses were removed, allowing storms to wash away the sand from the dunes.
Brigitte Couhé, from the Les Amis de la Baie de Wissant association, saw the downstream dune recede tirelessly: “Our house was 250 m from the dunes.
It is now 40 m away.
She advocates soft solutions, but opinions diverge.
Destroy 200 houses?
Thibaut Segard, the mayor of the neighboring town of Tardinghen, is campaigning for the destruction of over two hundred houses in Wissant in order to reduce the costs of protection.
With the help of a carpenter, he designed wooden modules, a sort of box filled with sand, and had them installed in his town a few years ago with success.
Some 400 m of protection have just been installed in Tardinghen and 100 m in Wissant, on the upstream dune, in order to protect a blockhouse serving as a rampart for the pump of the wastewater treatment plant.
Invoice for the community of municipalities: 100,000 euros.
"No question of abandoning a quarter of the town on the pretext that they are second homes," replies the mayor of Wissant Laurence Prouvot.
Especially since we are not in marine submersion.
I was not elected for that.
"
To read also "We can not fight": in Charente-Maritime, the landscape transformed by erosion
Regularly, sand replenishment actions are carried out on the downstream dune.
"We were to install coconut nets in the spring of 2020. Because of the pandemic, they were installed in August and did not have the desired effect," admits the mayor.
At the initiative of the Association of Coastal Elected Officials, forecasts for 2100 must be made and proposals made.
“We want to remain positive,” assures Laurence Prouvot.