ReportingDestination n ° 6 in the “Le Monde” 2022 travel list. The wind sweeping the Clape massif, the salt flats which give the landscape this unique pink reflection, the water which eats away at the earth… The soul of this small village in Aude is intimately linked to nature
” Gaston, Gaston des zig-zag! “Pierre and Vivianne Courtade remember being amused by the little train to the beach of the chalets:” He was doing a circle, and his thing was to find the tail of the train. Gaston, the driver, knew all the kids here. »Here, it is at the chalets of Gruissan in the Aude, very close to Narbonne. A village within the village, immortalized in the film 37 ° 2 in the morning, by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986). Starting your stay with a walk in the chalets is to discover one of Gruissan’s peculiarities, one of its many faces. Fragile and shifting landscapes, on the edge of land and water swept by winds, including the Cers, a north wind intimately linked to life in Gruissan.
A small company where time stands still. Thousand three hundred wooden chalets arranged in rows and sawtooth facing the sea. Their story begins at the end of the 19th century.e century, at the time of fishermen’s huts swept away by the seas, Narbonne families with the fashion of sea bathing and wooden huts, then the first huts without electricity or running water in the 1930s, before they were razed by the Germans during the Second World War. The wooden chalets on stilts that we know today date back to 1948. The area has been completely rebuilt according to a more geometric plan allowing everyone to have a view of the sea.
The “chalet” spirit
A way of braving the elements, of adapting to them, one of the timeless aspects of Gruissan. Few have remained in their original condition, following various renovations to avoid rising water levels, but there is still a beautiful harmony and the “chalet” spirit has weathered the storms. That of a collective life, of a large organized campsite. An atmosphere, a freedom, a balance that we owe perhaps to the ban on fencing and the fact that the land does not belong to their owners but to the town hall.
“The vision of the Barbarossa tower is the identity of the village. In the Middle Ages, we left Gruissan by boat. The village was surrounded by water and swamps ”Élodie Galsomies, tour guide
This Gruissan soul can be found at the wild beach of Vieille-Nouvelle, at the Auzils chapel, nestled on the heights of the Clape massif, without forgetting the Barbarossa tower, the lookout for old Gruissan. ” It is, for me, the strongest memory. When I saw her as a child, I knew I was not far from home. I still have chills every time I see her », Says Franck Codorniou, of the green brigade of the environmental police.
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