Whatever its form, the service station, emblem of modern societies, is undoubtedly on borrowed time in the era of energy transition.

Between fuel prices rising sharply in the wake, in particular, of the war in Ukraine, the depletion of resources and the fight against global warming, the years of the combustion engine are now numbered.

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This could sound the death knell - or at least the time for a profound reconversion - for gas stations, whose history is intertwined with that of the rise of the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century.

In Moscow, it was in the 1930s that the oldest station in the city center came out of the ground.

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And nine decades later, this sober cream and red building is still there, in the shadow of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Some gas stations have become places of memory, like that of Blackwell's Corner, in the Californian desert.

A huge portrait of James Dean reminds us that it was here, in 1955, that the Porsche of the actor from "La fureur de vivre" made its final stop before the accident which was fatal to him 40 kilometers away.

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The common feature of most gas stations is their awning which, in addition to protecting against the weather, often serves the marketing strategy of their owner.

A design that has earned some of them listed monuments, such as the Red Hill service station, 170 kilometers north of London, with its six circular awnings characteristic of the 1960s.

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Render to vegetation

With its whiteness, its curves and its neon lights, the 76 gas station in Beverly Hills evokes at night a spaceship posed near the palm trees of Little Santa Monica Boulevard.

British rocker Noel Gallagher, formerly guitarist for Oasis, chose this Googie-style building in 2011 for the cover of his debut album with the High Flying Birds.

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But this "canopy" is not always so flashy.

In many places, simple corrugated sheets do the trick.

It is thus in this locality of the County of Nimba, in Liberia, where the fuel is sold by the jar, and the refueling is done at the funnel.

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In France, many of the small village outlets have closed down.

In 2021, there were just over 11,000 service stations in France, compared to 41,000 in the early 1980s.

In question, competition from supermarkets which have recovered market share by siphoning off margins.

“In the 2000s, we diversified into garage activities, then washing,” explains Francis Pousse, service station representative at Mobilians, which brings together French automotive service professionals.

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"But the margins continued to fall, and faced with the investments needed to modernize, many managers hung up their gloves. And the young people who are buying garage-stations are closing the fuel part".

How many villages retain the memory of this distant era of small fuel businesses?

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In Roaix, north of Marseille, an Antar badge and an old red pump remind us that this flea market on the edge of the departmental road has not always been one.

Elsewhere, like near Gjilan, in Kosovo, some abandoned stations have been given over to vegetation, perhaps auguring the fate of others when humanity turns the page on oil.

In the meantime, some are recycled, like this former Tela service station in Phnom Penh, which has taken the concept of ecological transition literally.

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We no longer buy fuel there, but green plants.

© 2022 AFP