Great house, pity about the gelignite

 

The Conservatoire de l’espace littoral et des rivages lacustres, a bastion against concrete development, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The Conservatoire is responsible for around 10 million hectares and has fought to preserve the coastline, natural sites, and an ecological balance. More than 73,000 hectares of marshland, dunes, woodland and places of historical importance, including 9,000 in Languedoc-Rousillon alone, have been saved from intensive exploitation.

For example, it protects the huge lake of Vic and the island Sainte-Lucie, linked to Porte-la- Nouvelle and to Narbonne by the canal de la Robine, a haven of Mediterranean vegetation and wildlife. In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Conservatory has bought the Anse-de-Paulilles. It was still untouched: estate agents gave it a wide berth despite its natural beauty because it was formerly used by Nobel for the production of high explosives. Not even they could put a gloss on that.

Anse-de-Paulilles