• For several years, the association Paysages de France has been awarding its ugly France prizes, on the proposal of its members.

    Moussac (Gard), Villard-de-Lans (Isère), Aubière (Puy-de-Dôme) and Saint-Paul (Reunion Island) are – not necessarily – the lucky ones.

  • “The problem is that the number of laws in France is inversely proportional to their effectiveness, since nobody respects anything.

    And nobody understands anything about it”, regrets Olivier Saladin, administrator of the association.

  • The price - not always very well received - sometimes leads to a reaction from the State or communities.

It's a bit like the Gérards for cinema and television.

The cinder block that no one likes to receive.

For several years, the association Paysages de France has been awarding its ugly France prizes.

“We offer our members a little photo contest of places that deal with the problem of ugly France.

These warts at the city entrances, filthy and abandoned to publicity.

We received many photos.

A jury met and selected some of them”, explains Olivier Saladin, administrator of the association.

“We are not talking about the municipalities themselves.

But many of these places, most of the time at the entrances to towns, whose space is completely abandoned to advertising”

Four cities are on the list of winners of the 2022 edition. In the Gard, the town of Moussac, located about twenty kilometers from Nîmes, is one of the "happy" elected, for the price of the advertising campaign.

On the wall of an individual, in a bend, thirteen panels are glued to each other in a hymn to consumption.

In Moussac, "a wart", "the wall of shame"

Contacted by France Bleu Gard Lozère, the mayor of Moussac regrets this wall which he considers to be “a wart.

[…] It's the wall of shame.

Just at the entrance to the village, it's a shame, he explains on the radio.

It's not our fault, we would have done without this publicity.

We have other very, very beautiful things to show in the village, rather than this portion over which the municipality has no control.

»

For Paysages de France, however, the legal arsenal exists.

But it is rarely applied.

“The problem is that the number of laws in France is inversely proportional to their effectiveness, since nobody respects anything.

And no one understands anything about it, continues Olivier Saladin.

In fact, either there are local advertising regulations, but this is rarely the case in small municipalities, and in this case it is up to the mayor to enforce the law.

Either there is none, and then it is up to the prefect to do so.

»

But also Villard-de-Lans, Saint-Paul and Aubière

In order to circumvent the “unsightliness” of the entrance to the town, Frédéric Salle-Lagarde plans to plant a bamboo hedge and hide the panels.

But before the first blow of the pickaxe, it will be necessary to obtain the permission of the department of Gard, holder of the grip on the ground on this stretch of road.



The price of [sad] banality for the commercial area of ​​Aubière, in Puy-de-Dôme and its anthology of billboards, as far as the eye can see.


The price of the aggression of the landscape in "Réunion" for a series of panels on the commune of Saint-Paul.


A poisoned gift

“Symbolically, we send the mayors of the municipalities their prize.

Strangely, we have very few returns, ”smiles Olivier Saladin.

Even if the approach is not entirely in vain.

In 2021, changes occurred in two of the four "pinned" municipalities: in Dambach-la-Ville (Bas-Rhin), "following the intervention of Paysages de France with the prefecture, the panel installed near a historic monument has been removed.

»

The case seems a little more thorny in Montalieu-Vercieu (Isère): “The illegal panels at the entrance to the city were removed by the DDT of Isère at the request of the association, underlines Paysages de France.

However, the mayor of Montalieu-Vercieu asks him for damages of 3.5 million euros for damage to the image of his municipality.

»

Did you see ?

Isère: A village receives the "Prix de la France ugly", the inhabitants and the elected officials angry

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Which four towns won the “Ugly France Prize”?

  • Nimes

  • Occitania

  • Languedoc Roussillon

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

  • Auvergne

  • Isere

  • Great East

  • Advertising

  • Environment

  • Planet