Stemming the tide in Normandy

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0:42I'm in the water. I swear it's not that bad. I reckon it's about 16 degrees Celsius today. Yeah, that's Normandy for you. Come on. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Carolyn Lambele, and this is Assignment from Normandy in northwest France.

1:07It's low tide, and the hard, wet sand is glistening, stretching out just about as far as the eye can see. To the right, I can catch a glimpse of the Channel Island of Jersey, and to the left, the Chosay Islands. I grew up coming to this town, Coutonville, every summer. Usually, we would come for the best-to-day national holiday in mid-July. There would be waffles at the Suissech-Schuld in the town center, and then we'd head to wash the fireworks. An immovable family tradition that years later, I'm still attached to. Kutangil is one of those places where time seems to stand still. The 1970s wallpaper in my grandma's house, the chime of the clock, and other rituals like this one.

2:00Fabienne doesn't live here, but she's been coming to this same rock, her rock, as she calls it, for 40 years. It's sunset, and she's digging for palot clams, a local delicacy for tonight's apéro, pre-dinner drinks.

2:19You need to look out for two small holes, usually just under a rock.

2:31But the thing is, times are changing. Every year, the sea level is rising. And with it, the concerns of local residents and the oyster producers. They form the backbone of the local economy, but they're threatened by rising sea levels. Every year, several meters of the coast are swept away by the waves. This part of France has the highest tides in continental Europe, some of the highest in the world. The difference between high and low tide can be up to around 14 meters. Erosion is a real issue here. That's why this area was chosen for a pilot project to study coastal erosion and what to do about it.

3:23When did your family become aware that coastal erosion was a problem?

3:30When they saw the dune, the other dune, go away. It just disappeared into the sea? It disappeared completely. And it was where was our old cabin on that dune. And it goes to the sea. So we take it off and build it and bring it here behind the poulette. So you managed to take it down before it was swept away? Yeah, yeah. La poulette is a tiny shack just above the beach here in Goutinville. Marion Ketier's parents bought it in 1967, just a year or so before their other larger cabin in neighboring Blainville was swept away. So you knew that it was going to go under the water? Yeah, yeah, because it was in front of the door.

4:21We could not stay one day more. Yeah. I cannot forget this. I remember always this. Yeah. I cannot forget. We love this place. We played here. After the dune in Blainville collapsed, Marion and her family spent an entire winter living in tiny La Poulette. They'd use the car battery to watch their favorite cartoons. Her parents, Georges et Nannique, pioneered mussel and oyster production in this area, the Cotentin Peninsula. When her father died, Marion took over the business.

5:00La Poulette isn't just any old beach shack. It's weathered every storm, so much so that it's become the town mascot. And it holds a special place for my family, as well here. Here, there was a big hole here. And the poulet is on piloti. The piloti, or supporting piles, are made of concrete. We saw the piloti on the right. And at the time, here, the dune has been limited to break. and I and one or two oyster farmers, we came and brought big bags of sand to put and cover it with sand. And we prepared all this part. I have a picture. The water was passing. Not a lot, but starting. It was passing over and it was threatening the zone conchilical, the area where all the oyster producers are.

6:05That's why Osteformas came and helped us. My husband brought all the red ones. They all pitched in to save the dune. Marion isn't a big believer in letting nature take its course. Came with this big tractor. She herself provided some large rocks, one or two meters square. So did the municipal authorities. They now form a kind of protective bastion around La Poulette. No, no, there was nothing at all. Nothing. No stone at all. It was only sand. So we had no choice. We repaired. Yeah. And here it is still today. And in front of that, the region Normandie decided to put poles to help hold the sand so the sand don't go away.

6:57And it seems not to be bad. It works a little bit? It works, it works, yes. Marion's talking about large wooden stakes planted deep into the sand. They're upright, bare tree trunks. They're meant to break up the power of the waves at high tide and help retain the sand, thereby slowing erosion.

7:29We've climbed up the sand dune above La Poulette.

7:35You can see the zone conchilicale where all the oyster producers are just here behind the dune. How many are there in the zone conchilicale? 26 or 30.

7:52The Zone Conchilicard is a cluster of warehouses, mainly oyster producers, but there are also a handful of fishermen. In the Second World War, the Germans used it as a camp for forced laborers. In fact, the whole peninsula played a significant role throughout the war. Just on the east side is Utah Beach, one of the D-Day landing sites. Today, Marion even produces a special oyster called La Belle du Tât, Oysters, which she grows at the beach. The Didet beaches, too, are suffering from significant erosion.

8:28France is by far the top oyster-producing country in all of Europe. Normandy alone accounts for just over a quarter of France's oyster production.

8:40We're just walking through some trees here that she says her... Your parents planted this? Yeah. This. The dune is covered in sort of big grass, basically. And there's willows and just all sorts of vegetation here. You can hardly see the sand. But it's not this who stops the water. No. No. When the water decides to hit the dune, it does it straight. It doesn't resist. Straight. It just cuts it off. We saw this several times. and the dune regenerates and it goes again. So you've seen this dune evolve a lot throughout the years. Moving. It's like living. Alive. Alive. Yeah.

9:39A few days later, I'm on the beach without Marion. You can hear the sound of the waves. It's Saturday morning and I can see my dad just over there. He's coming up from behind the dune. He went early to go see the fishermen. There he is with his, uh, sonkeba, his shopping bag. It's idyllic. If I could walk by the beach every day to go get my shopping, I would. There he is. Ça va? let's see what he has I found two souls jumping out of the bag still alive they are still moving the bones so not to be eaten for two days because they would be much too tough and stiff and the bar, I took a big one so we can have it also still alive?

10:34no, no, this one, they die more quickly there's nothing standing between the warehouses in the zone concilicale and the sea other than a narrow sand dune. The concrete seawall, or dig in French, ends just before La Poulette, with the last beachfront homes. Much of Coutenville is under sea level. If the ocean were to cut through the dune, many here fear the town would flood entirely.

11:01At the annual general assembly of the AZA, the Residence Association in Coutenville, they're debating the future of the dig, which protects the town. We're on the front line, a beachfront resident warns.

11:18Many people here want to extend the concrete seawall, past la poulette, meaning it would stretch beyond the oyster producers' area, in theory, protecting them too. But recent legislation and changing attitudes towards the environment have made building near the seafront almost impossible.

11:40One of the reasons is that these man-made structures, sea walls, groins, slipways for boats, might protect the town, but they actually exacerbate erosion further up or down the coast.

11:55Many here at the meeting are exasperated with what they say is the authorities' laissez-faire attitude, letting Mother Nature take her course. But France is the only country in Europe following this strategy. All the other countries in the European community are investing millions, hundreds of millions, to protect their coastlines. Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, all these countries invest to protect themselves.

12:29speak to people in this area and you quickly get the feeling that many are at best skeptical about climate change it's cyclical they say coastal erosion isn't new it's a natural phenomenon it's got nothing to do with global warming or the sea rising they argue for them erosion isn't the issue it's that the french state won't let them build so-called hard defenses anymore, like seawalls or large rock barriers. Instead, the authorities are pushing for what they call soft defenses, usually made with natural materials like wood.

13:03In fact, the state has poured millions of euros into this area to trial new methods of fighting coastal erosion. Eventually, the plan is to apply these solutions all around the country. You're listening to The Documentary from the BBC World Service.

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13:54This is Assignment. I'm Carolyn Lombolet in Normandy.

14:01Welcome to the site, says Louis Tessier, a local mayor in this region. Dressed in jeans and an old shirt, he has a relaxed way about him and doesn't look like her typical mayor. In fact, he's also an oyster farmer and drives his produce to the capital each weekend to get a better price. and he's the point person for this pilot project on coastal erosion. We can hear the sound of machines tapping away. They're hammering in a row of wooden poles deep into the sand. Can you tell me what's going on?

14:37He's just explaining that there's a range of things happening here. There's sort of these wooden fences, and then there's also these rows of big wooden stakes, that are meant to stop the waves when they come crashing or to at least reduce the energy of the waves. And then there's also these short little poles.

15:01These are the fascine, the brushwood barriers. Every 10 metres, you'll have a little crate and the whole thing will be woven together.

15:12The idea is to trap the sand.

15:18Today, the state is asking us to innovate, to come up with something other than solutions that may seem permanent, though they're not. Hard defences, especially with climate change, inevitably have an impact on either side, north or south, of the structure that's built. And that is the reality. But what's new about using wooden stakes? We've seen them already at La Poulette.

15:46What is new is that we're being asked to come up with something other than a concrete seawall. So we are trialling and combining these three structures, hydraulic stakes, fascine, smaller fences, as well as replenishing the beaches with sand. Because for the moment, we haven't come up with anything else. There were some trials with big bags, but that meant putting plastic into the sea. And what we can see today is that where we've done that, it creates other types of problems. So today, we are using noble, completely natural materials, but which have a certain vulnerability. We don't know anything for certain.

16:29We don't follow any dogma. We're learning every day. And certainly, we're going to have to learn how to pull back from the sea. But it requires a paradigm shift. We're going to have to change the way we think, act and how we manage the land. It will take time. The authorities say the wooden stakes, crates and fences are just intermediary measures that will shore up protection for the next decade or so. Ultimately though, the aim of the pilot project is to convince the oyster producers and other local businesses to relocate further back away from the sea. It's a hard sell. Livelihoods are at stake.

17:15Though Louis de Céa stress says they're not going to force anyone to leave. It's just like when you were a kid and you built a sandcastle on the beach. When the tide came in, after a while you had to leave because the sea overwhelmed you. We're in the same situation. You can stand facing the sea at low tide and say, you won't pass, you won't pass. But eventually, you'd better take to your heels and save yourself.

17:53Here's another local business under threat.

18:00We knew we were buying on the seafront, obviously. We went to see the prefecture, the town hall, to make sure it would be OK. At the time, no one was talking about erosion and submersion. This was 15 years ago.

18:18Luc Catherine and his wife sold their house to buy this campsite, La Belle Étoile, in Gouville, just a stone throwaway from Coutonville. It was their lifelong dream. They fell for its charm as soon as they saw it right by the sea. When did you understand how serious the issue was? We understood in 2014 in the storm that we needed to find solutions. They rebuilt it about 20 meters across here, and in 2019 it happened all over again. The sea swept the dune away. There was a dune right here. Yeah, yeah. Just there? Just there, oui. No, the height of the terrain was 1 ,50 m, 2 m. So there was a 2 m dune right here.

19:04Yeah. How quickly was it swept away?