When it was built at the end of the 1960s on one of France's most glorious Atlantic coastlines, the beach was over 200 metres (656 ft) away. Today, the hulk of the 80-flat Le Signal apartment block perches precariously on a dune just metres from the water and local authorities are tearing it down before it tumbles.
Behind a fence on a sunny day in February, residents and vacationers watched as an excavator bit pieces out of Le Signal's empty hulk.and its impact on ocean levels," said 71-year-old local resident Guy Bouyssou, who also feared the village itself, just north of Le Signal, could be the next in line for water damage.
"Le Signal's situation is largely symbolic for what is happening in terms of coastal erosion France," he said. He added the boxy building was a typical example of the extensive build-up of coastal areas in the second half of the 20th century, when urban planners had little regard for the fact that shorelines are dynamic and ever-changing.
He said ever-rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms made it impossible to let people live in Le Signal without costly shore protection measures that could also have negatively impacted nearby shorelines.
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