Le Figaro Nantes
The castle remains, the park changes hands.
In accordance with its announcement at the end of autumn, the Pays de la Loire Land Development and Rural Establishment Company (Safer) preempted, on February 22, the 40 hectares of the Clermont castle estate, in Cellar, known to have been the property of Louis de Funès for 16 years.
The procedure thus avoids the sale of this important natural space along the Loire to a buyer who wanted to build a private property next to the castle.
Responsible for a mission of general interest, Safer was contacted last year by WWF France and the Conservatory of Natural Spaces of the Pays de la Loire region to save the endangered green setting.
Previously prized - that is to say from 1967 to 1983 - by Louis de Funès, classified as a sensitive natural area, the land made up of a small wood and a meadow was threatened with being partly closed to the public.
In the absence of intervention from the town hall, the regional establishment was therefore responsible for intervening in the sale by pre-empting the property to the tune of 240,000 euros.
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Guarantee the preservation of the environment
Owner of the Clermont castle park, Safer is now preparing the resale of the estate.
This will involve a call for projects backed by specifications guaranteeing the preservation of the site's environment.
In preparation since last November, the file is being finalized with the two supervisory bodies of the organization, the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance.
“Our public call for applications will be submitted once the environmental study necessary for the development of our specifications has been completed ,
”
specifies
Rémy Silve, deputy general director of Safer des Pays de la Loire, in Le
Figaro .
The establishment also takes the time to verify the rights to a rural lease claimed by the ousted buyer - a dispute which should be resolved in the coming weeks.
The domain should be transferred to its new owner(s) before the end of the semester.
Who, at the end of the day, could inherit or share the forest and the meadow which were the joy of the last years of Louis de Funès?
Potential buyers are not yet out of the woods.
The starting line would however be provided.
Winegrowers, farmers, local associations, other more national organizations - such as WWF France - and even the owners of the château itself would flock there.
However, one absence remains assured in the boxes: that of the Cellier town hall.
“
The purchase of this park is not part of our vision,”
its mayor Philippe Morel confided last month to Le
Figaro
(DVD).
Megalomania ?
Very little for him.