In preamble, I insist on underlining that I do not consider myself an archaeologist. If always, more or less, I have been interested in the things of the past, it is, actually, my professional activity that has driven me to launch into this research.
Know first that I have ordered this file in my memory (promising myself to bring back to it later) in 1994 (therefore 13 years ago) when I have written the report of presentation of the POS (plan of occupation of the grounds) of ARGELES-SUR-MER. It was then a matter of putting this plan in compliance with the “Coast Law"(Loi Littoral), published in 1986 and of which some elements thereafter had been clarified by some decisions of jurisprudence, of which, notably, the one that had struck the operation of PORT ARGELES!
Before 1986, the French laws were precise and left little space to the jurisprudence. We were then in a system of roman right. The “Coast Law” has been the first French law of Anglo-Saxon character, in this sense that it contains blurred terms which it was needed to interpret to the risk of ... jurisprudence! Such was the case of the ESPACES PROCHES DU RIVAGE (SPACES NEARBY OF THE SHORE) where the urbanization must remain limited and attached to the existent conglomerations. But how to define these spaces ? At the edge of the shore the law forbids every building on a depth of 100 meters. It is therefore here that begin the spaces nearby of the shore. But where do they finish?
Edged northwards by the river ”Le Tech”, and nested to the foot of the “Albères”, there where the Pyrénées dive into the Mediterranean, the plain of Argelès-sur-mer is a plain of alluvium. And it has seemed to me evident that it was worth to establish better the urban stretching backward of the grounds of alluvium.
I am not going to reproduce here the 116 pages of my report that one can consult freely to the service of urbanism of the Town Hall. But, if you take the grief of reading it you will be able to notice that I have relied on historical and scientific data to spot the limit between the firm grounds and the results of alluvium. Notably I have taken into account the pedology (pedological card of France Argelès / Perpignan , sheets L.24 and L.25), of the geology (geological map of Henri SALVAYRE, and the shore at -2.500 years of Henri GOT ) and of the Napoleonic cadastre established in 1813 / 1814.
The result of my cogitation has driven to the suggestion of a delimitation of the spaces nearby of the shore that you can see photo of left at the bottom of this page. It seemed to me that such a limit, scientifically wedged on the nature of the grounds, replied at the same time to the respect of the nature and to the worry of avoiding the jurisprudent risk. Also what was not my surprise when we have received the suggestion of the Prefect (to see photo of right at the bottom of this page) with two enormous zig-zag, one that excluded the village-beach link already urbanized in part from the spaces nearby of the shore, the other that included the property of “Valmy” to prevent the realization of a project of golf (it was scientifically illogical but, finally, imprints of wisdom: “Valmy” is since become a wine ground). Evidently, “jug of earth against jug of iron”, it was the layout of the State that has prevailed.
