“Finally, the wart is gone!
», « oh no, it's sad to see him go anyway… He's part of the landscape now!
“Some were waiting for it, others dreaded it: the demolition of the Signal, in Soulac-sur-Mer in Gironde, has officially begun.
This four-storey building, built in 1967 and which despite itself has become a symbol of coastal erosion, received its first shovel on Friday, February 3.
200 m separated it from the ocean originally, against only fifty today.
Behind the gates of the construction site, many onlookers braved the cold to come “to see the show”.
In any case, the site was worth the trip of two ministers, Christophe Béchu, Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, and Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecology.
Véronique has lived in Soulac for four years.
She insisted on coming: “I am a little moved, even if I did not live in the town at the start of the story.
I think a lot about the people who lived there, who see their memories being literally demolished before their eyes.
I'm not saying the building is beautiful, but I feel sorry for them”.
“I think of those who fought and who are no longer there…”
"A lot of sadness" As the clamp approaches the top of the building, many brandish their phones, just to immortalize the moment.
Danielle Duprat looks away.
Former owner of an apartment in the building, she somehow contains her emotion: "I think of those who fought and who are no longer there...".
Her husband Vincent has bright eyes: “It's hard, it's a lot of sadness.
But I wanted to be there”.
Evicted in 2014, they had to fight for six years to obtain compensation, up to 70% of the original value of their home.
“The Signal is not the emblem of global warming: for me, it is a human error.
We would have liked to be told
yes, we were wrong so we will settle your file
.
There should never have been any construction here, Danielle argues.
When we bought, there was 150 m of dune, but we did not know that it was artificial.
Otherwise, we would not have invested”.
Her husband sighs: “We were also told that we would be defended in the event of a problem…”
François is only waiting for one thing: to find the dune “intact”: “Nature always wins, it was obvious that the Signal was going to pass there”.
He's even a little annoyed: "That way people might stop asking us where the Signal is!"
There are other things to see in Soulac than an empty building swallowed up by the sea.”
Read alsoGlobal warming: 126 municipalities become priorities in the face of the threat of coastal erosion
Danielle Duprat, on the contrary, regrets too early demolition: “Look, there is not a single crack!
It is still intact, we could have lived there for a long time.
But we were in a hurry to see us leave, ”she tackles, bitter.
In the end, three claws on the top of the facade before the workers stop the machine: “Is that all?
almost regrets a spectator.
Construction will resume on Monday February 6, theoretically for three weeks.
The Office National des Forêts will then have to redo the dune.