“We were going to the beach just downstairs. There was a dune, a long beach, still a bit of sand, and the ocean. It seemed far to us until swimming. » Caroline Neveu, 47, remembers with precision her summers spent in Soulac (Gironde) until the age of 20. She finds a group of friends there, all children or grandchildren of owners of Signal apartments, this building standing on the main beach. “These are unforgettable vacation memories, we were a group of friends, we all had our little apartments. Later, my daughter spent all her summers there with my parents,” remembers her childhood friend Stéphanie Bessas.
This building, typical of the architecture of the time, came out of the ground in 1970. If some call it “the wart”, it delights its owners, with its marble staircases and large oak entrance doors. Above all, its balconies on the sea meet the expectations of the “glorious thirty” and their promises of not too expensive holidays. At the time, Le Signal was part of a vast coastal urbanization project which included the construction of several buildings, for a total of 1,200 accommodations, a thalassotherapy center and a luxury hotel. Finally, after the bankruptcy of the promoter, Le Signal remains alone facing the beach.
The one who has become, in spite of himself, the symbol of erosion on the Atlantic coast will disappear. On Friday February 3, the demolition site of the building will be officially launched, in the presence in particular of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. From February 6, it will be demolished piece by piece. Some owners will come to pay their last respects. Then, nature will take back its rights: the National Forestry Office will take care of redoing the dune, replanting and trying to bury the history of the Signal under the Soulac sand.
A group of happy owners
Fifty-three years ago, the owners of the 78 apartments, with rather modest incomes, gathered their savings to be able to spend their summers at the sea, imagining to retire there. In 1998, Vincent Duprat, 76 years old today, bought with his wife, Danielle, a three-room apartment on the fourth floor, crossing, with a view of the sea. “It was not a luxury building, but it was very pleasant”, he says.
Marie-José Bessac lives in Brive-la-Gaillarde with husband and children. Since 1965, they rented in Soulac every summer and decided, in 1983, to acquire a two-room apartment on the third floor. “We were a whole gang, a dozen owners who came for the holidays”, remembers, nostalgic, Marie-José Bessac, 77 years old. At the time, she was an executive secretary, her husband was a commercial director in household appliances.
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