A GHOST TOWN
IN PARIS
G'day folks,
Welcome to another site that has been overtaken by progress.
Paris lies is the center
of Ile-de-France, the most populated region in the country with more residents
than Austria, Belgium, Greece, Portugal or Sweden alone. It boasts the world’s
fourth-largest and Europe’s wealthiest and largest regional economy. But one
small corner of the region paints a very different picture. Just a thirty
minute drive north from the Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris, lies a ghost
town where very little has changed since the mid-twentieth century, except for
one deafening adjustment.
Goussainville-Vieux Pays was a quiet little farming
village, 20 kilometres away of the hustle and bustle of Paris. At the heart of
the village, is a the skeleton of a once grand 19th century bourgeois chateau,
overlooking the town’s renaissance church with its rich history that residents
once took great pride in. But in the 1970s, the fate of this calm suburban town
changed drastically.
A quiet farming village no longer, in 1972 the residents of
Goussainville were suddenly under the direct flightpath of the newly-built
Charles de Gaulle Airport. The town was now so close to the country’s largest
airport in neighboring Roissy that the noise from low-flying planes became
unbearable to live with. Residents of the old village watched as neighbors
deserted their homes in droves, unable to stand the constant noise of the
aircrafts.
The chateau was built in 1860 for a Monsieur Théodore
Frapart, whose father served as mayor of Goussainville in the early 1800s. As
the town’s wealthiest family, it’s likely they were first to abandon their home
in Goussainville, unable to tolerate the noise of jumbo jets flying overhead,
disturbing their garden parties.
The house appears to have been the victim of a fire, which
claimed the roof, leaving the interior with its ornate frescoes to the
elements. It is still owned by Monsieur Théodore’s descendants.
But noise wasn’t the only concern for the residents of
Goussainville. A year before the airport even opened, during the Salon de
Bourget airshow taking place in the proximity of the new CDG airport, a Soviet
prototype plane to become a Concorde competitor crashed in Goussainville,
destroying several houses and a children’s school that was luckily closed on
that day. All six passengers on the plane and eight people on the ground
perished. And then of course the airport opened, constantly reminding residents
what might happen again. By 1974, the last 200 inhabitants of Goussainville had
abandoned their homes.
Responsible for the abandonment of almost 150 properties in
the village, the airport authorities were forced by decree to buy the abandoned
houses and look
after them. It had probably not been taken into account that Goussainville’s
Renaissance church, Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul was ranked as a historic monument
along with all of the buildings within its perimeter. Of the 144 houses, the
airport acquired 80.
Even the 14th century Renaissance church began to
deteriorate into a sorry state until 2010 when after years of abandonment,
local authorities finally stepped in and began efforts to restore it. But
still, the jets roar overhead.
The only place which still breaths life within this village
is the Libairie
Goussainlivres. Opened in 1997 and situated in a
charming 19th century house this bookstore plays home to 700m of shelving
stacked with an array of second hand books that line the walls of the living
rooms. There you will find Nicolas who will happily greet you in a fashion
that almost makes you forget the uninhabited silence this village holds.
However, there is no peace to be found in this seemingly
picturesque suburban village. Upon arrival, you will be greeted with the
screeching of airplane jets. Not more than a minute will pass before the sounds
of chirping birds is eclipsed. You’ll have to raise your voice to finish your
sentence.
A new and functioning Goussainville does exist today where
most of the old residents moved. However it’s probably one of few towns in the
world that can say it shifted itself several kilometers to the left. Meanwhile,
in the old town, or the ‘vieux pays’ only a handful of faithful residents
remain. In 2009, Aéroports de Paris sold half of the historic village back to
the community for a symbolic price of 1 euro.
But if you were to take a little detour outside of Paris,
you would still find this village frozen in time. The only evidence of a world
moved on would be a few cars and the distinct and frequent noise of airplanes
passing overhead. In fact the only time this village hears peace since the
1970s is during airport strikes or during incidents like the volcanic eruption
in Iceland that grounded air travel across Europe.
Clancy's comment: Ah ... The price of progress, eh?
I'm ...
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