In the south-east of France, an exceptional natural site threatened by erosion

The decor is breathtaking: on one side the Almanarre beach, ranked among the most beautiful in the world by the daily New York Times in 2018; on the other, salt marshes with remarkable flora and fauna, in particular pink flamingos.

In the middle, a ribbon of four kilometers occupied by the "salt road", a road closed to traffic in winter but where, in summer, at the height of the tourist season, up to 1.550 vehicles per hour circulate. This road created in 1969, and the question of its maintenance, now focus attention.

Because with the rise in the level of the water linked to global warming, it has suffered every winter for the past fifteen years from ever more repeated "sea surges", forcing the authorities to clear the sand and rehabilitate the roadway. Annual cost for the metropolis and the town hall of Hyères: 500.000 euros.

Expenses that have become too substantial for this city of 56.000 inhabitants in the south-east of France, which has retained the idea of ​​an underwater breakwater 400 meters long and 10 meters wide, 150 meters from the coastline and one meter below sea level, facing Almanarre beach.

The town hall advances a cost of 2,5 million euros "depreciable between 9 and 11 years".

The objective is to maintain this "world exception" which constitutes "the true identity of the Hyérois territory", confides to AFP its mayor Les Républicains (right) Jean-Pierre Giran, referring to the two coastal strips linking Giens to the mainland. with the Pesquiers pond in the middle.

This "double tombolo" is an extremely rare geological phenomenon: there are only a handful in the world and only three in the Mediterranean.

"Evolving Landscape"

A "philosophical question", answers the association Hyères civic ecology: "We are not going to fight against nature with concrete blows! It has been disrupted by man, let's do with it now", estimates its host Benoît Guérin, also a member of the orientation committee of the French Office for Biodiversity.

An opinion shared by the Conservatoire du littoral, manager of the threatened saltworks, which "wishes to artificialize this natural space as little as possible".

The state has also added its grain of salt. A body responsible for advising the government, the General Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development published a report in mid-2022 on which opponents rely and which accuses the "historically recent" salt route of not having " only aggravated by the fragility of the tombolo".

Worse, he questions the "real benefits" of an underwater dike which would ultimately displace coastal erosion at its extremities, on the Posidonia seagrass beds, these precious underwater forests to limit... this erosion.

The report also suggests another approach to development, less focused on mass tourism. Populated by 3.000 permanent inhabitants, the peninsula of Giens welcomes nearly a million visitors a year.

Benoît Guérin recommends the closure of the salt road, to "limit visits to the place", on the model of the neighboring island of Porquerolles where, since 2021, a gauge of 6.000 daily visitors has been established.

"At the same time, let's move forward on soft mobility: park the cars upstream of the site", he suggests.

The dyke project remains bogged down for the moment: the State is waiting for new studies before any decision.