ReportageThe acquisition by the media man of a hotel in the village of La Croix-Valmer is causing concern among residents. Despite his investments in the town, the CEO of Altice France denies wanting to privatize this part of the Mediterranean coast.
Far from the quarrels of national political life, the mayor of La Croix-Valmer, in the Var, usually navigates in calm waters. But, for several months, Bernard Jobert has been confronted with an unforeseen surge of anxiety. Elected various right at the head of the village of 3,700 inhabitants, this amiable septuagenarian deposits before us a long letter of recrimination, among the many received in recent weeks. “So that you can see the atmosphere …”, he sighs.
Target of the Croisiens, the kind of this seaside resort near Saint-Tropez: the luxurious investments of businessman Alain Weill, 59 years old.
In five years, the CEO of Altice France – parent company of telecommunications operator SFR – and creator of BFM-TV has bought three hotels, two restaurants and forty studios, brought out of the ground a five-star with ” wellness village ”and vegetarian restaurant, soon to be completed by eight suites and their individual swimming pools, for a bill close to 55 million euros.
In his office at the town hall, decorated with a panoramic photo of Gigaro beach, Bernard Jobert is discouraged: “People think that La Croix-Valmer will become ‘Weill land’, I don’t know what to say to reassure them …”
Bourgeois population
In this sunny early February, the village seems nevertheless very peaceful. A somewhat shabby city center is home to a handful of shops, most of them closed. Further on, on the Saint-Michel hill, Alain Weill’s hotel, called Lily of the Valley (“lily of the valley” in French, a flower that is hardly Mediterranean), looks like a large Californian villa drowned in the pine forest. The place has also been dormant since October 2020 and the second confinement.
“It was like arriving in a foreign country. The colors, the smells, everything was different. “Alain Weill
The man whose appetite is intriguing is no stranger here. He gladly recalls it: it has been nearly fifty-six years that he has tasted the sweets of the Riviera every summer. His parents, hospital doctors in Nevers, started renting a holiday home in La Croix-Valmer in the 1960s. After twelve hours in the car, “It was as if we arrived in a foreign country, the businessman remembers today. The colors, the smells, everything was different. “ In the wake of Françoise Sagan and Brigitte Bardot, the France of the “thirty glorious years” became infatuated with the Côte d’Azur: cerulean water and pine scents within DS reach.
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