Could this French village disappear? Erosion eats away at Mont-Saint-Michel coastline • FRANCE 24

[Music] It looks like a postcard. The silhouette of Morse Michelle in the distance, but in this bay, erosion is quietly redrawing the map. According to scientists from the University of K, it would take just one storm, one strong tide for parts of Sonjang Tomar to vanish beneath the waves. And it’s a risk residents in this threatened hamlet know all too well. Ly spent 20 years paying off this seaside home. My life has been as a caregiver and a cleaning lady. Ly says she didn’t know her house was at risk. And I didn’t even think to ask. I was so happy to have this house. The beach is only 100 m away, but these days Ly rarely goes there. She says it’s too painful to watch the dunes disappear. [Music] Look how much it’s been eaten. I hadn’t seen the dune erode so much before. It was as high as that. Behind what’s left of it sits her house. Ly points to it, showing what was once protected is now exposed. [Music] We won’t be protected from anything anymore. It’s pretty scary actually. The Normandy coastline is under close surveillance these days. Professor Frank Lavoir is a geomorphologist. Twice a year he monitors the shifting shoreline. This will take about 2,000 photos. With climate change, we’re seeing sea levels rise. This has clearly led to increased erosion problems. In the past 70 years, this coast has retreated more than 300 meters. That’s over 5 m per year, which is very significant. [Music] Further along the coast, some residents have already surrendered to the sea. This once bustling sheep farm is now abandoned. Not long ago, 350 sheep grazed on the surrounding pastures. But as the fields flooded more often, the land became impossible to work. And the couple who managed it says they had no choice but to leave. They’ve since reinvented themselves, now running a nearby campsite. The last tide that hit before we left, that’s when we told ourselves we had no regrets about leaving because the sea had risen very high. I was surprised. When the water came, I just made up my mind, took a leap, and climbed onto the dyke where the sheep were grazing. The farm has since been bought by the French government. Soon, it will be demolished and the land returned to nature.

In the bay of France’s famed Mont-Saint-Michel, postcard-perfect villages are slowly being swallowed by the sea. In the space of just 70 years, the Saint-Jean-le-Thomas coastline has receded by 300 metres. Many residents say the question is no longer if the sea will advance, but when. So what can they do about it? Our France 2 colleagues report from Normandy.
#DownToEarth #Environment #MontSaintMichel

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