Le Rayol: first donation to the coastal Conservatory

INA00324

Note

Le Rayol: first donation to the coastal Conservatory

Collection title

Le Journal Provence - Alpes - Côte d'Azur - Corse

INA00324

Source

INA (FR)

First broadcast date

10/05/1977

Production year

1977

Abstract

Nice gesture of Mireille Foncin, who has just donated her property and the fifteen hectares that surround it, in Le Rayol, township of Cavalaire, so as to ensure its permanent protection. This is the first bequest to the Coastal Conservatory.

Type

video

Production companies

France 3 Marseille - Own production

Broadcaster

FTV - F3

Audiovisual form

News

Primary theme

Protection of Natural environments

Secondary themes

Landscapes and environment / Geography and landscapes

Credits / Cast

Foncin Mireille - Participant

Period of events

1977

Map locations

France - South East - Cavalaire

Original language

French

Media running time

2m54

Additional information

Context

Le Rayol: first donation to the coastal Conservatory

Jean Marie Guillon

Created in 1975, the role of the Conservatoire du littoral (Coastline Conservatory) is to buy up sites which are of special interest from the point of view of landscape or ecology, to preserve them from the ravages of urbanisation. In the 1970's the Corniches des Maures between Cavalaire and Le Lavandou (Var) was still one of the rare sections of the coast in the Var still relatively untouched by urban sprawl. However, promoters were very interested in it, among them some very powerful ones such as the Groupe Empain. Two purchases by the Conservatory enabled large sections of this stretch of coast to be protected. The best known is the one which led to the creation of the Gardens of Rayol in 1989, on the former property of the aviator and aeroplane constructor Potez. You can see here a panorama of flowers which grow in the various "Mediteranean" climates that are found right across the world. This purchase was preceded by that of the Foncin property, not far from Rayol, in the commune of Cavalaire. The domain covers a hill overlooking the sea at the top of which there is the Casteou dou souleu (the castle of the sun). This house was built in 1890 by Pierre Froncin, one of the most famous French geographers of the time. This is the house he retired to and it was here he wrote one of the very first studies on the Massif des Maures, published in 1910. In 1908 Foncin founded the Société des amis des Maures et de l'Esterel. His granddaughter Mireille Froncin left the property to the Conservatory in 1977, which was surely in keeping with her grandfather's wishes. Her legacy is particularly important in that it launched the Conservatory's work in the region and in a most needy area.

Bibliography

Le Conservatoire du littoral en Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Conservatoire du littoral, 2002.

Pierre Foncin, Maures et Esterel, Paris, Armand Colin, 1910.

Transcript

- silence

- The Rayol, on the coast of the Var.

- The Mediterranean Sea at a short distance, and a few hundred meters away, along the main road, drivers can notice a white house perched on the top of a wooded hill.

- It is Mireille Foncin’s residence, a nice house built in 1893.

- But Mireille Foncin has also a respectable age, she is 82.

- The old lady has just bequeathed her house and her 15-hectare property to the Coastal Academy.

- This academy, created by the State in 1975, thus gets its first donation.

- Mireille Foncin told us why she gave a share of her Provence.

- The desire to preserve a share of the coast where we have always lived, that used to be gorgeous but that still is and that could have fallen prey to property developers.

- The Coastal Academy has two missions.

- To assure the safeguard of shares of the shore through the acquisition or the management of the areas that are the more threatened and to open them to the public.

- The donation formula is of course welcome.

- You are aware it has been years since we saw - every year – the coast being nibbled by house development, by speculation of some people who by to close up,

- and the inhabitants of the coast as well as the tourists have less and less space, they find nature on the seashore.

- So, we must hurry to preserve the ultimate hills, the ultimate shores, the ultimate dunes to keep them for the coming generations.

- I fully trust the Coastal Academy and besides I was recommending it to a gentleman who was informing me of his desire to imitate my action,

- of the conditions in which one could get all the guarantees that nothing would change after you are dead.

- I had absolutely no guarantee if I had sold it to private individuals.

- And I would tell you that it made a fortune and I didn’t wish at all to manage a fortune.

- Property developers and wealthy private individuals are thus the vanquished; the example of Mireille Foncin took their exact opposite.

- I try to make the property developers understand that the preservation of the quality of the coast is done for their own interest.

- If buildings are built on the seashore, everything will be over in a few years.

- If on the contrary we keep natural spaces on the shores, it will be possible to deeply fit out.

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page 1 of 13

View 1 - 4 of 50

Le Rayol: first donation to the coastal Conservatory

Le Rayol: first donation to the coastal Conservatory

- silence

- The Rayol, on the coast of the Var.

- The Mediterranean Sea at a short distance, and a few hundred meters away, along the main road, drivers can notice a white house perched on the top of a wooded hill.

- It is Mireille Foncin’s residence, a nice house built in 1893.

- But Mireille Foncin has also a respectable age, she is 82.

- The old lady has just bequeathed her house and her 15-hectare property to the Coastal Academy.

- This academy, created by the State in 1975, thus gets its first donation.

- Mireille Foncin told us why she gave a share of her Provence.

- The desire to preserve a share of the coast where we have always lived, that used to be gorgeous but that still is and that could have fallen prey to property developers.

- The Coastal Academy has two missions.

- To assure the safeguard of shares of the shore through the acquisition or the management of the areas that are the more threatened and to open them to the public.

- The donation formula is of course welcome.

- You are aware it has been years since we saw - every year – the coast being nibbled by house development, by speculation of some people who by to close up,

- and the inhabitants of the coast as well as the tourists have less and less space, they find nature on the seashore.

- So, we must hurry to preserve the ultimate hills, the ultimate shores, the ultimate dunes to keep them for the coming generations.

- I fully trust the Coastal Academy and besides I was recommending it to a gentleman who was informing me of his desire to imitate my action,

- of the conditions in which one could get all the guarantees that nothing would change after you are dead.

- I had absolutely no guarantee if I had sold it to private individuals.

- And I would tell you that it made a fortune and I didn’t wish at all to manage a fortune.

- Property developers and wealthy private individuals are thus the vanquished; the example of Mireille Foncin took their exact opposite.

- I try to make the property developers understand that the preservation of the quality of the coast is done for their own interest.

- If buildings are built on the seashore, everything will be over in a few years.

- If on the contrary we keep natural spaces on the shores, it will be possible to deeply fit out.

- music

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