Historique de PORT Grimaud, l'oeuvre de F. Spoerry par Yves Lhermitte

once upon a time PORT GRIMAUD

This history is the fruit of dozens of hours of research, work, composition... and passion !
The most provided, the most complete. And it continues to grow richer and richer
Enjoy reading it...

BIRTH :

" We always say that in old age we achieve what we dreamed of as children. It must be true. Because three images led me to the creation of Port Grimaud.
      First of all the model of this prehistoric lake city often visited as a child in the Zurich museum.
      Then Venice, which I discovered at the age of 40 and which is for me the symbol of the tamed sea.
      Finally all these Mediterranean ports where I anchored my boat with my friends. As I docked, I always wondered why these ports of call in Greece, Spain or Turkey were so enchanting when in France there were so few, especially between Cassis and Saint-Tropez. "

      François Spoerry

... Thus was born PORT GRIMAUD.

TRIBUTE :

Mr SPOERRY, creator of PORT-GRIMAUD passed away on 11 January 1999.
He rests in the Church of the Lake City...

François SPOERRY has left us...
He probably left to build elsewhere,
in another galaxy, a new city
for all sea-loving souls...
Have a nice trip Mr SPOERRY and thank you...

SEA, SUN and CULTURE :

Our beautiful region is: SEA, SUN and CULTURE

The architect Georges Edery wrote in the architecture magazine 'Le Carré bleu' talking about PORT-GRIMAUD :
"We are here in an ecological urban concept based on an architecture to live in that favours a community atmosphere".

Defibrillators :

- PG1 : security guards' lodgings at the entrance to the town, at Church Square and at the Harbour Master's Office
- PG2 : Guard's lodge, at the entrance.
- PG3 : Keeper's Lodge, rue du Fer à Cheval

Situation :

43°16N-06°35',3E

EMERGENCIES :

CROSS on VHF : canal 16
direct line : 04 94 61 16 16
from a mobile phone : 112

SNSM: 04 94 56 07 31

SAMU: 15
FIREFIGHTERS: 18
POLICE: 17
GENDARMERIE: 04 98 12 68 80
Medical practice: 04 94 56 25 33
SOS MEDECIN: 04 94 97 65 65
Centre ANTI-POISON: 04 91 75 25 25
GRANDS BRULES: 04 91 38 39 32

EDF breakdown service: 08 10 33 30 83
GDF breakdown service: 08 10 43 30 83
SAVELYS: 04 94 56 39 95
wWATER COMPANY (Véolia): 08 11 90 07 00

Services :

MAIRIE: 04 94 55 69 00

CAPTAINSHIP : 04 94 56 29 88

Tourist Office PG2: 04 94 56 02 01
O du T village: 04 94 55 43 83
Administration PG1:04 94 56 27 48
Administration PG2: 04 94 56 11 15
Administration PG3: 04 94 55 22 86
Coches d'eau: 06 73 87 76 84
Mobiline PG1: 06 11 94 21 31
Underwater diver: 04 94 43 34 95
Yacht Club: 04 94 56 54 44

Some figures :

      Port Grimaud 1 :
1 108 co-ownership lots either :
- 490 detached houses
- 618 flats in blocks of flats

      834 moorings of which 250 public places reserved for passing boats or year-round year-round tenants.

      584 moorings (70% of total capacity) of which :
- 471 are located immediately adjacent to the beneficiary individual houses,
- 28 in front of ground floor flats
- 77 benefit non-contiguous flats.

Port Grimaud 2 :
902 houses of which :
- 503 detached houses
- 350 condominiums (32 copropriétés)
- 49 business premises

719 moorings :
- 617 places leased on the water level of PG2
- 33 on the water level of PG3
- 66 public places.

      Port Grimaud 3 :
595 co-ownership lots
- 424 total flats in condominiums.
- 171 detached houses

      492 berths, distributed as follows :
- 196 stations leased to PG3 properties of which :
      - 171 detached houses
      - 25 flats
- 33 for residents of PG2
- 174 leasehold positions not linked to a residence
- 64 posts belonging to the municipal port of Grimaud.

Since 1 January 2022, the Grimaud Town Council has taken over the management of the lake and the public squares in the form of a public service. It will take a year of transition to set up...

More numbers :

PORT GRIMAUD extends over
75 hectares.
2 545 housing
7 km of canals and 14 km of docks.
14 bridges plus a wooden footbridge.
12 islands

Building permits :

The first building permit was signed on 13 June 1966

In the canals the speed limit is 3nd soit 5,56 km/h

Le canal du Nord...

All the HAPPINESS :

      Against a backdrop of sails and masts, between canals and islets, between houses and boats, a new freedom begins, open to the open sea and bathed in a gentle way of life like no other.
      Here everything appeals to the senses. Under the Mediterranean sun, the colours sing, the scents mingle.
      Everywhere the green of the gardens, like a replica of the blue of the water, creates shade and freshness. Every day, Port Grimaud brings back the happiness of the seaside villages,

PORT GRIMAUD is above all and above all the village of all happiness....

Photo from another time, which we will never be able to take again... because the wild herbs have been pulled out... photo: Yves Lhermitte

" It would be important not to distort the lakeside character of Port Grimaud and to preserve
its tranquillity from all the hustle and bustle that modern cities suffer from..." (François SPOERRY)

'20th century heritage' :

       On 11th September 2004, at the "Cité Radieuse" in Marseille, the Mayor of Grimaud, Mr BENEDETTO, in the presence of the presidents of Port Grimaud 1, 2 and 3, Mrs MARTRES, TROEGELER and BACOU, received from the hands of the Regional Director of Cultural Affairs, Mr BREDEL, the nameplate designating PORT GRIMAUD as 20th century architectural heritage.
       This label was created in 1999 by the Ministry of Culture and Communication. Port Grimaud was registered under the name "Seaside resort known as Port Grimaud".
       ( The label "Remarkable Contemporary Architecture" now replaces this former label "20th century heritage" since the law of 7 July 2016 ).
       A tribute was paid to the creator of the lakeside town, Mr François SPOERRY.
       Each Port of Grimaudois must now ensure that the town's architecture is respected, so that it retains its Provencal identity, which is what makes its success...

Daybreak in Port Grimaud...

MEMOIRE :

"Built in 1967 by the Mulhouse architect François SPOERRY, the lakeside city of Port-Grimaud, located in the heart of the famous French gulf of Saint Tropez, was the talk of the town. On the one hand, because of its atypical idea of linking each habitat to the land on one side and to the sea on the other, where the inhabitant will be able to moor his sailboat just a few steps away from his stay. On the other hand, because of its picturesque aesthetics borrowed from Provençal architecture and its sinuous ground plan evoking the old town centres. As a result, Port-Grimaud was also criticised for being out of step with productions of the same period. François SPOERRY was then qualified as an avant-gardist while he denied all the famous modern principles that the profession praised. The development of this seafarers' village marked the arrival of movements in opposition to Modernism such as New Urbanism or Post-Modernism. Styles of which Port-Grimaud is sometimes described as a precursor"...
( Extract from the very interesting thesis that Valentine KUNTZ, architecture student, presented at ENSA Strasbourg in 2016)

The thesis (in French)

Autre Mémoire :

Fanny PUGET wrote a thesis entitled: "Port-Grimaud, a history of Post-Modernism?" for the Ecole d'Architecture, de la Ville et des Territoires de Marne La Vallée whose summary can be read :

The summary

The bare land on which PORT GRIMAUD was built, to the left of the river La Giscle and Les Marines de Cogolin, to the right...

CRITICAL :

      "Congratulations Mr. Spoerry for this marvellous achievement, which, authorised by the public authorities, has finally made it possible to show men, with an impact that is still unequalled, the way you preach, perhaps without knowing it, decadence".
      This sentence is the conclusion of an article written in 1972 by 3 architects, D.Amouroux, M.Crettol, J.P Monnet in their 'Guide to Contemporary Architecture in France',
      shows to what extent François Spoerry's work has been strongly criticised and misunderstood. Favouring a horizontal construction respecting a Mediterranean architectural tradition went against the fashion of the time, driven by Le Corbusier's fame, with modern and cold constructions, avant-garde buildings for the time which were called "radiant cities", and which, 50 years later, have aged very badly, unlike PORT GRIMAUD.
      Our lakeside town has become famous. It succeeds admiration. We have tried many times to copy it. It is now proudly and naturally part of the Mediterranean architectural landscape.
      If our lakeside town is beautiful and admired, it was not built without difficulty. Not only bad criticism or mockery from other architects, but also administrative difficulties, many problems due to its unique design for the time. So our lakeside city has a history!
      It is this 'adventure' that we would like to tell you here...

once upon a time PORT GRIMAUD
history of the lakeside town

Aurora...

Peaceful atmosphere :

Eroded by winds laden with sea spray, patinated by the ardent rays of a bitter Mediterranean sun, the lakeside town ages well until it becomes mischievously integrated into the beautiful Provencal landscape.
In order to discover it well, to enjoy the little privileged moments that one can invent for oneself every day, it is necessary, on a boat, to go for an early morning walk, when the village is still asleep and the sun lazily stretches out its first rays, and to drift along the calm, smooth canals, reflecting like a magic mirror the facades of the harmoniously varied houses. One can thus admire the slow progression of the light, strangely golden at the end of the dawn to pale with the rise of the star and the disappearance of the mists until it magnifies the palette of ochres and pastels... To penetrate oneself with the silence, the peaceful atmosphere of the lakeside city.

Daybreak on the Church... C'est un moment magique! photo: Yves Lhermitte

You have to take the time to stroll along these whimsical alleyways and let yourself be surprised by these small details that F. Spoerry wanted to be numerous (dovecotes, fountains, deceptive frescoes, ...) anonymously drowned in the whole to better 'soften' the architecture ...
Port Grimaud is all of this, a collection of emotions that are born and die along the way.

Advertising on Port Grimaud...

Other publicity...

Beauty Secrets :

What is the beauty of PORT GRIMAUD ? :

       A few small details which may seem unimportant but which are nevertheless essential and give all its grace, its harmony, and its beautiful architectural difference to the lakeside town :
        - The difference in height of house roofs.
        - The variety of colours of the facades.
        - The variety of openings, doors, windows, balconies and balustrades.
        - The streets that refuse any straight lines and seem to follow the unevenness of the ground.
        - The houses that fit into each other, sometimes anarchically, as if they had been built out of necessity, without an architect.
        - Architectural details placed here and there in the city, dovecote above a porch, trompe l'oeil frescoes, various genoises, pediments inspired by ancient architecture...
        - And above all, the most important detail, the façades are never perfectly vertical (the architects obliged the masons to make a slight gradation in the laying of the rubble or bricks, to avoid a perfect verticality: the plumb line was not the right thing to do!) These slightly "sloping" façades avoid sharp "breaks" and are more pleasing to the eye. All the charm of the lakeside town is due to this "not strictly vertical" facades, which is not found in PORT COGOLIN for example...

Brume matinale...

VIGILANCE :

Dessins de Xavier BOHL:

Drawings by Xavier BOHL, published in: 'le COURRIER de PORT GRIMAUD' of May 1995... and still relevant !...

Website of the architectural practice :

www.xavierbohl.com :

Sea Sortie...

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE 20th CENTURY :

In May 2010 a very interesting book was published by 'éditions Imbernon' on "L'ARCHITECTURE DU XXe siècle DANS le VAR", with a complaisant chapter on PORT GRIMAUD and its architect François SPOERRY..

At the time of l'Atelier du Crabe...

CHRISTOPHE :

The singer CHRISTOPHE used to come every year to spend a few days in the lakeside town...

Sometimes he would give us the pleasure to offer us a mini concert just for us, residents of PG2...

CHRISTOPHE, place François Spoerry

And often he played pétanque, place François Spoerry or place du Marché, sometimes with Vartan BERBERIAN...

Christophe left us on April 16, 2020 : We miss him...

Christophe offers us a mini-concert, place François Spoerry, during the last anchoyade in 2019....

Le lac intérieur...

Luc FERRY :

esr has been resident for several years at PORT GRIMAUD where, every year, we have the pleasure of a conference on a philosophical subject related to current events.

During one of its annual conferences at PORT GRIMAUD...

Our favourites :
Luc FERRY

The book that reconciled me with philosophy !

Luc FERRY

To know everything about Artificial Intelligence and transhumanism with its benefits and deviances...

Luc FERRY

Wisdom, truth and ethics: the 3 main axes of philosophy are, in this large dictionary, explained, dissected and related to the essential questions of the present time....

The Giscle is a very capricious river which can have strong floods as here on February 5th 1976:
The boats stranded on PG2 beach were swept away by the violent waters of the river from their moorings upstream of the bridge .

Aerial view of Port Grimaud...

Martine ALISON :

        " My world is full of dreams bordering on the naive, which leads me to a delicate sensuality " : Martine ALISON defines her inspiration in this way. Her canvases sparkle with colour and happiness. Flowers mingle with animals, comic book characters, in the middle of which a pretty young girl walks, draws, contemplates the landscape, rests, hitchhikes or seems to pose in front of the painter...
        Born in 59 in Saint Etienne, she became passionate about drawing very early on and possesses a wealth of inspiration which is very quickly found on these colourful canvases, bubbling with life...
        " My painting is a technique developed through hard work, it is the expression of a whole life. You have to have lived, accumulated experiences, stored up images, discovered freedom, met happiness and accepted to say... say with your brush... at the rhythm of beauty, the rhythm of your emotions. There is no secret, there is only authenticity, you don't have to search. You have to BE... BE without reserve, without constraint. Life has sculpted me like this, I don't invent anything, I execute. I observe and become aware of the abundance of life that surrounds me and I draw inspiration from it to create a work in the same tune, that is to say an act of an almost theatrical type where imagination can propel the scene "...

On peut la retrouver sur: Its website ou sur son Its Instagram.

You can discover and buy his paintings on : le Singulart or on the website Artmajeur

Some paintings... :

With PORT GRIMAUD for decoration...

His latest creation

The VAR :

      The VAR department was adopted by the National Assembly on 26 September 1790 and had the number 78 in the alphabetical classification of departments, the 83 to the department of Yonne.
      The Gulf of Grimaud became the golfe Simbracit and Grimaud took the name of Athénopole.

      The chief town of the department went to the most populous town, Toulon awith its 22,000 inhabitants. But in 1793, the town rose up against revolutionary France and asked the English for help. The French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, retook the town and lost its status as capital to Grasse. Then in 1795 it was Brignoles and finally Draguignan in 1797. It was not until 1974 that Toulon became the prefecture of the Var.
      The department of Var extended as far as the river of the same name. But in 1860, the county of Nice was definitively attached to France by Napoleon III: a new department was created, the Alpes Maritimes, which was to take over part of the Var, including Grasse, Cannes or Antibes and the river Var.

      Hence this unique geographical curiosity in France: The river Var will flow out of the department that bears its name !
      It is on this date that our department became definitively the number 83...

      From 83 in 1789, the number of départements reached 130 under Napoleon I, then 86 after the end of the First Empire in 1815. It rose to 94 after the Second World War and is now 101.

Christine BENOIT :

Christine BENOIT esr resident for several years in PORT GRIMAUD.

THE AUTHOR :

        Christine Benoit was born in Aurillac.
        After studying Economics in Clermont-Ferrand, she obtained a Master's degree in Science and Management. She taught in a high school for ten years and then became Director of a Polyclinic and a retirement home.
        She founded two companies in the food and catering industry in Montluçon.
        She is the author of several books published by Editions de Mortagne.

the literary creations of a residentE, Christine BENOIT

My favouritesr :

Christine Benoit's website

Montage : Yves LHERMITTE

On the net :

      In an article found on the net with the title : "Ancestry and posterity of the new Saint-Malo", one paragraph related to PORT GRIMAUD :
      the constant increase in purchasing power gave holidays an ever-increasing importance and coastal resorts an unprecedented appeal. A hedonistic shift away from the accepted modernity of the rest of the year was sought. This led the architect and promoter François Spoerry (1912-1999) to invent Port-Grimaud. He bought 35 hectares near Saint-Tropez and undertook to create an ideal, ageless Provençal port, evocative of a long history which would have left its strata and patina : « My collaborators and I," he wrote, "are committed to organising spaces that give the impression of being the result of long maturation, of chance and time, of the superimposition of contradictory wills ». It was « to reassure and please ». Such statements outraged most planners, who considered them demagogic and saw the demonstration of this in the formidable popular success, relayed by the press, which Port-Grimaud enjoyed. They consoled themselves, however, by persuading themselves that such an experience could not be conceived outside the field of leisure. But they were wrong.
The message of the old cities.
      In fact, a few attempts outside of the summer resort, which were destined to be successful, were already underway, but in a less systematic way and, above all, with an absolute refusal to adopt architectural pastiche. All of them shared with Port-Grimaud the desire to restore the public space and to find a familiar atmosphere...

Ivan GOOD :

Inspiration :

I can't explain it but the first time I discovered this painting by Ivan GOOD, it was a reproduction a little black, a little sinister, without the original colours. I immediately thought of the last stanza of Albert SAMAIN's marvellous poem, "....

There are strange evenings ..."

Albert SAMAIN et Ivan GOOG

There are nights when anguish twists you,
Or the soul, at the end of the downward spiral,
Pale and on the terrible infinity suspended,
Feel the wind from the abyss and recoil desperately.
There are nights when anguish twists you,
And those nights, I'm in the shadows like a dead man...

nightmare... photo-montage: yves lhermitte

Bilou, Claude, Two celebrities who are part of the memory of PORT GRIMAUD...

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