Urban creep

[SaligoBay]

No, not the one with the revolver and the shaved head that I bumped into last night!  The insidious growth of French cities, and how the French countryside is disappearing at an alarming rate.   Doh, I could have told them that!!  

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1468983,00.html

[Dick Smith]

I think I speak for many when I say "What is the story of the man with the revolver and the shaved head, then?" Urban sprawl can wait.

[SaligoBay]

Oh, you know what life is France is like.   I thought these things were normal! 

When I first wrote that post, I wrote "the man with the shaved head and revolver", then you could have asked why did he shave his revolver.    Revolver-shaving, I believe, is not normal.

[Iceni]

How funny, we were only saying yesterday that the farmland (with cows) that interspersed the supermarkets and banks in Biars would have been built on years ago in the UK. Small towns with working farms in the middle of them abound around here. We also drove for miles on a Saturday afternoon and hardly saw a car let alone any real signs of urban creep. Again, this is where you live - major cities all over the world and not just Europe and France have this going on. No country can standstill and so it happens. Go to the poorer bits of France and you will find that 'yes' there are new supermarkets and brico's but there are also large areas which could be built on but which so far have not.

To me, the amazing thing is to see houses - not that old - surrounded by huge factories that make Jam (for Biars is the Jam capital of Europe). The French in this area do not seem to have such a NIMBY attitude but then if you work in one of those factories, rolling out of bed and into work would have its advantages.

Mind you, I am not surprised that the urbans have crept away here, currently it never seems to stop raining

[Richard-R]

I good thing i have found is village creep. lots of new homes being buit in villages up and down the south coast, and not just holiday homes, but housing for locals. All of the local ( 50km) towns and villages here seem to be expanding. New homes going up and old houses being done up. Wish i had invested in a trade brico, they must be minting it.

[Mpprh]

Hi

my village is in a very desirable area for commuters. It is exactly half way between two prefectures, and within an easy drive to each, but we have limited "infill" building of new houses.

M le Maire (whose family were the secretaire for the commune at the time of the revolution) told me :

"I'd like to keep the village as it was when I was a child, but I can't. So I'm trying to limit it to 8 , or so, new houses per year. Of course, we could change the POS and build 500. But we'd have a lot of problems : insufficient electricity supply, sewage, and (most importantly) assimiliation of all the newcomers into the village".

The downside is that land prices have rocketed. And as the POS has only recently reduced minimum building size on land of 1000m from 2000 m2 (if you have connection to main sewage), he only gets fairly expensive villas going up.

I'm not unhappy ....................... as a resident ?

 

Peter

 

 

 

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[Tag]

My local village creep is a peeping tom who got the full force of the hose pipe the last time he tried looking through hedge. And a discreet warning from the gendarme.

But seriously, huge chunks of France are being ruined by mindless building which often rides roughshod over planning regulations thanks to backhanders and the like. It is also difficult for a small town mayor to turn down job creating expansion or establishment of say factory units in a country where the real un/underemployment rate is well over 15%.

But then, would UK councils not bend the rules for an industrial unit built on a greenfield site if it provided work for the victims of the Rover fiasco?

[letrangere]

But this is so true, I was talking with someone recently about the Dordogne Valley east of Libourne.  Travelling from Bordeaux now it really isn't until you get beyond Bergerac that the unspoilt countryside proper starts to appear.  Admitedly, housing development certainly isn't on the scale of the Mediterranean coast but it is practically M Bricolage and Carrefour all the way along the main road.  And the number of new build residential properties popping up everywhere, even in remote parts, is astounding.  The feel of the area has changed considerably in recent years. 

And now a woman in Saturday's Telegraph refers to a Reading University academic's study on foreign home ownership.  He concludes property prices in France and Spain have risen 15% in the last year, more in some coastal areas.  Reckons it's not sustainable for a whole host of reasons.  Also points out that relaxation of planning permission in many traditional "holiday home" areas is adding to the problem, cites Spain as being the main culprit but surely parts of the south of France can't be far behind?

M

[Richard-R]

What we are seeing in my part of France is real economic growth and not just second home owners. It always amazes me, the number of young people and children even in the smallest villages. Given to location there are very few old cars on the road, houses are being 'done up' by French workmen for Franch people. This is very unlike a simular region in the U.K. We have a place in Cornwall and most of the residents are now well over 60 and 50% plus have moved form a city. The village's become a little time warp of what the incomers think it should be like, flower boxes and no signs of the 20th century. Thank god our village in France in not like that.

[letrangere]

What we are seeing in my part of France is real economic growth and not just second home owners

Richard, I think that's the same in the area I was referring to.  There's a broad arc running to the east and south of Bordeaux into which this already prosperous city seems to be expanding.  M