In Brittany, houses are being razed to prevent them from being submerged

"We don't really have a choice, the sea is taking over," says Fanch Renevot, in front of the truck where the furniture from his white house, a stone's throw from the beach, which he bought in 2015 with a view to spending his retirement there, is piled up.

"Six months after we bought it, it went into the red zone," he says, referring to the classification as "very high risk" of marine submersion of this hamlet in the small commune of Treffiagat, on the southern coast of Finistère.

"Not sentimental about stone," Mr. Renevot does not say he is particularly affected by the sale of this second home. "My wife was a little more upset by it: it's paradise here after all," confides the 60-year-old roofer, as he scans the few houses standing in the middle of the dunes and pines.

Built in a low-lying area in the 70s and 80s, these homes are separated from the beach by a simple dune, which has gradually thinned over the years. Filled in before winter, it threatens to give way to the assaults of the sea during each storm.

In November 2023, in anticipation of the passage of storm Ciaran, around twenty houses were evacuated by prefectural decree.

"All the containment systems that we have been able to implement over the last 15-20 years, namely the dike, rockfill, piles, are not effective," lists Stéphane Le Doaré, president (LR) of the Communauté de communes du Pays bigouden sud (CCPBS).

"Bottomless pit"

Every year, the community has to pay "more than 100.000 euros" to reinforce the dune, by reinforcing it with thousands of cubic metres of sand. "It's a bottomless pit, a bandage on a wooden leg, because the sea is stronger than us," Mr Le Doaré emphasises.

"We cannot guarantee, in a sustainable way, that the residents behind the dune will be able to live in safety," he explains. "The models prove that, inexorably, the sea will enter at that location."

The CCPBS therefore undertook to buy seven houses to demolish them, then fifteen in total in the longer term. The purchase of the first two houses was approved at the beginning of December by the community council.

At the end of the process, the hamlet will be returned to nature. And the construction of a dike behind the dune is planned to protect the remaining homes.

"I will leave with the sea"

But the prospect of having to leave this popular seaside location does not delight local residents. "It's heartbreaking for everyone," says one woman, who does not want to give her name. "It's ruining our retirement," insists a couple in their 70s, at the door of their house.

"I'll leave with the sea," Denise (name changed) even proclaims from her kitchen window. The octogenarian, who has lived in the neighborhood since she was four, can't imagine moving. "When the sea has come all the way, I'll have to go up to the attic and someone will come and get me," she says.

The activation of state aid from the "Barnier fund" allowed the CCPBS to offer advantageous repurchase conditions, at market price (i.e. from 280.000 to 687.000 euros) for the first seven houses. "Correct" estimates, confirms Mr. Renevot.

But the financial aspect is struggling to convince the residents most attached to their residence. "I understand the psychological trauma for some families who have lived there since the 70s and raised their children there," sympathizes Mr. Le Doaré.

"They will end up hearing it, it's just time for it to be acceptable," the elected official believes.