IN THE VAL D'OISE (France) (AFP)

Jerome has two options for accessing this abandoned farmhouse in the Val d'Oise: go under the wire fence, thanks to a happy opening that allows you to enter, or discreetly by the forest.

Jerome practices urbex, for "urban exploration", a concept formalized in the 1990s.

On this hot summer day, where onlookers stroll, Jerome opts for the privacy of the woods. Suddenly leaving the path, he rushes into the lush undergrowth and thus easily reaches the interior courtyard filled with wild grasses from the farm, part of an old manor house.

Silent, collected, Jerome photographs the traces of the many guests of the place. The vegetation, at first, patiently trying to regain its rights, pointing the ends of its leaves through the disemboweled windows.

Then the stigmata of different human occupations, old and modern, turntables on the ground among the rubble, chair lost in the middle of a room, chalk inscriptions of children's games on a wide door, even some discrete graffiti, like this extraterrestrial head that contrasts with the country atmosphere of the site.

According to the historian Nicolas Offenstadt, the urbex is "unauthorized visiting or wandering in abandoned or neglected places". This phenomenon is gaining momentum, notes the researcher, because of the "deindustrialization of whole regions" and the development of amateur websites exposing their photo or video production.

- Thrill of the forbidden -

Jerome has been doing it for four years, his natural curiosity having pushed him to explore abandoned buildings in his area, "before they are demolished", without ever breaking in.

He enjoys the calm of these secret addresses that give him a feeling of "well-being" and "harmony with nature". On his website Explosfriches.fr, he posted some of the 50,000 photographs of castles, quarries, railway stations and hospitals visited for those "who would be afraid to go there".

Nicolas Offenstadt, he practices the urbex to understand what these depopulated sites "say today of the past".

Others, like Raphael, the founder of the site UrbexSession, are rather in search of thrills. To spend "atypical" holidays, he decided in 2013 to begin "a Tour de France of the facts-various". A little "macabre", he admits. Since then, he has photographed factories, shopping malls and other disused amusement parks, an "alternative" tourism coupled with artistic research.

"Taste of adventure" and "thrill of the forbidden", aesthetic or documentary interest for heritage and local history, the motivations of the urbexers are multiple, analysis Mr. Offenstadt. Some engage in the urbex a little by chance without knowing the movement, because they fall on deserted places. Others discover the practice via the Internet or their entourage.

- Political protest -

Nicolas Offenstadt believes that "the political challenge, in a broad sense, urban and security standards" is another of the motivations of these explorers.

The pioneers also note an evolution of the practice to the spectacular, with "completely unnecessary risk taking" and "followed mostly by teenagers," laments Tim, founder of the site Glauque-Land.

Theoretically, the violation of private or public property exposes the offender to a term of imprisonment and a fine, which vary according to the type of places (domains belonging to individuals, railway stations, historical monuments, etc.) and the seriousness of the offense ( simple intrusion, burglary, degradation).

But in fact, explorers are rarely worried, they testify. Falling on guardians, police or owners, Tim has always been able to leave the scene without any trouble, after explaining his approach and accepting, if necessary, to remove the photos from his website.

Jerome remembers especially the irruption of dogs or rickety stairs. Bites of booster of the multiple risks of this activity which is not to take "lightly". "Every moment of inattention can be fatal," he says.

Like the day when, concentrated on the door of a forgotten boiler of a former factory of cattle feed, Jerome does not perceive the threat immediately.

But, looking up, he realizes that the floors of the upper floors have partially collapsed and rusty machines weighing several tens of pounds overhang, in a precarious balance. "There is still danger of death," says, phlegmatic, the thirties, who reports that an explorer was seriously injured in the same plant due to worm-eaten soil.

"The danger is part of the activity but you have to know how to set limits," said Jerome, who intends to stay whole to continue his explorations, perhaps also abroad.

© 2019 AFP