Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ?
Since the dawn of time, a river has been a break in continuity of the territory, a danger and an obstacle. However, it has also been a source of wealth and a transport route. Thus, the Seine has always attracted men who have settled on the hills framing its alluvial valley with fertile lands. Nevert...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
2017-11-01
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| Series: | In Situ |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/insitu/15570 |
| _version_ | 1811319766648881152 |
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| author | Isabelle Duhau |
| author_facet | Isabelle Duhau |
| author_sort | Isabelle Duhau |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since the dawn of time, a river has been a break in continuity of the territory, a danger and an obstacle. However, it has also been a source of wealth and a transport route. Thus, the Seine has always attracted men who have settled on the hills framing its alluvial valley with fertile lands. Nevertheless, its islands remain terra incognita; the ancient cities such as Paris, Nogent-sur-Seine or Melun upstream, Meulan downstream, which have developed around a central island core, remain rare. However, the landscaped qualities of the shores and these islands convey very early an imaginary propitious to the implantation of a holiday place. Country houses have been settled throughout Île-de-France but the bends of the Seine, downstream to Paris, occupy an incomparable place because of the proximity to the royal castles of Saint-Germain and Versailles and the splendid river landscapes. The observation of old maps enables to understand the development of the banks of the river, its islands and its hillsides. Villages hung on the slopes go down to the flood-risk pastures bordering the water. Hundreds of properties follow on the hillsides, in front of the sight. The houses are built on the upper part of the plot, facing the water in order to enjoy the landscape and the perspective of their sloping gardens or those in terraces descending towards the shore. Sometimes even those ones are extended by landscaping to the island that faces them. For obvious reasons, the country houses totally built on an island are rarer. This attraction for the banks and the islands of the Seine has grown in accordance with the profound transformations that the industrialization introduced from the middle of the nineteenth century. Thanks to the railway, many Parisians can reach the countryside more quickly and more often. This holiday spot « on the edge of town » takes proportions hitherto unimaginable. It is at the origin of the urbanization of several islands on the Seine: the island of La Dérivation (the diversion) in Carrières-sous-Poissy in 1878, the island of Migneaux in Poissy in 1903, the island of Villennes in 1912-1913, or the island of Vaux before 1914. This holiday location aims at small shopkeepers, modest rentiers and affects up to the captains of industry. All of them own or rent a main residence in the city and coexist during their country stay in very close territories, with the crowd of countryside party lovers, employees and other little people, and this happens well before the law of 1906, which grants the Sunday rest to the last to be deprived, the workers. The bend of Chatou, for example, becomes in fine days one of the favorite destinations of the little Parisian people in search of a portion of countryside. A few enterprising shopkeepers set up « guinguettes » (open-air dance halls), with balls and boat rentals for rowing and floating baths. It is on the terrace of the Maison Fournaise where the famous Déjeuner des Canotiers, painted by Renoir in 1881 takes place. A few hundred meters south, the Grenouillère proposes its small beach, its canoes for daily rent and its famous weekly ball. The impressionists Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Sisley immortalized these moments of relaxation and the surrounding Sequanian landscapes. Their works contribute to form a certain idea of the French lifestyle in the eyes of tourists who dream of this past. However, Maupassant, in his short story La femme de Paul, evokes a completely different atmosphere, places where depravity and prostitution reign! Pollution coming from industrial discharges obliges these establishments to close at the turn of the twentieth century. The shores experienced a new infatuation during the interwar period when hygienist theories popularized sport practice, outdoor life and sun bathing. Sports facilities are built on the banks of the river or on its islands, Physiopolis and the beach of Villennes on the island of the Platais, in Villennes-sur-Seine for example. This « golden age of leisure activities », whose image is widely diffused by postcards, lasts only a very limited time with compared to the phenomenon of progressive and continuous urbanization of the shores. Today, several islands of the Seine are still devoted to leisure activities. During the second half of the twentieth century, the unbuildable nature of most of them favored the development of sports and landscaping planning. Nevertheless, people camped in the island of the Commune (Maisons-Laffitte) or in that of Mousseaux. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Grande Île of Bennecourt welcomed a plot of mobile homes located on a camping-caravanning campground. The islands of Mézy and Juziers, now united, were occupied in large part by lots of recreational chalets built on stilts. « Venice 45 minutes from Paris » praised the advertising campaign for the plot of the island of Vaux at the beginning of the twentieth century. The enthusiasm for the islands persists, even though many of the residences have become main ones. Moreover, for their occupants, returning to their island each night is a bit of going on vacation every day. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:48:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3a6987b88f1e42c3b791325d14c2e93f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1630-7305 |
| language | fra |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:48:19Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication |
| record_format | Article |
| series | In Situ |
| spelling | doaj.art-3a6987b88f1e42c3b791325d14c2e93f2022-12-22T02:46:18ZfraMinistère de la Culture et de la CommunicationIn Situ1630-73052017-11-013310.4000/insitu.15570Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ?Isabelle DuhauSince the dawn of time, a river has been a break in continuity of the territory, a danger and an obstacle. However, it has also been a source of wealth and a transport route. Thus, the Seine has always attracted men who have settled on the hills framing its alluvial valley with fertile lands. Nevertheless, its islands remain terra incognita; the ancient cities such as Paris, Nogent-sur-Seine or Melun upstream, Meulan downstream, which have developed around a central island core, remain rare. However, the landscaped qualities of the shores and these islands convey very early an imaginary propitious to the implantation of a holiday place. Country houses have been settled throughout Île-de-France but the bends of the Seine, downstream to Paris, occupy an incomparable place because of the proximity to the royal castles of Saint-Germain and Versailles and the splendid river landscapes. The observation of old maps enables to understand the development of the banks of the river, its islands and its hillsides. Villages hung on the slopes go down to the flood-risk pastures bordering the water. Hundreds of properties follow on the hillsides, in front of the sight. The houses are built on the upper part of the plot, facing the water in order to enjoy the landscape and the perspective of their sloping gardens or those in terraces descending towards the shore. Sometimes even those ones are extended by landscaping to the island that faces them. For obvious reasons, the country houses totally built on an island are rarer. This attraction for the banks and the islands of the Seine has grown in accordance with the profound transformations that the industrialization introduced from the middle of the nineteenth century. Thanks to the railway, many Parisians can reach the countryside more quickly and more often. This holiday spot « on the edge of town » takes proportions hitherto unimaginable. It is at the origin of the urbanization of several islands on the Seine: the island of La Dérivation (the diversion) in Carrières-sous-Poissy in 1878, the island of Migneaux in Poissy in 1903, the island of Villennes in 1912-1913, or the island of Vaux before 1914. This holiday location aims at small shopkeepers, modest rentiers and affects up to the captains of industry. All of them own or rent a main residence in the city and coexist during their country stay in very close territories, with the crowd of countryside party lovers, employees and other little people, and this happens well before the law of 1906, which grants the Sunday rest to the last to be deprived, the workers. The bend of Chatou, for example, becomes in fine days one of the favorite destinations of the little Parisian people in search of a portion of countryside. A few enterprising shopkeepers set up « guinguettes » (open-air dance halls), with balls and boat rentals for rowing and floating baths. It is on the terrace of the Maison Fournaise where the famous Déjeuner des Canotiers, painted by Renoir in 1881 takes place. A few hundred meters south, the Grenouillère proposes its small beach, its canoes for daily rent and its famous weekly ball. The impressionists Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Sisley immortalized these moments of relaxation and the surrounding Sequanian landscapes. Their works contribute to form a certain idea of the French lifestyle in the eyes of tourists who dream of this past. However, Maupassant, in his short story La femme de Paul, evokes a completely different atmosphere, places where depravity and prostitution reign! Pollution coming from industrial discharges obliges these establishments to close at the turn of the twentieth century. The shores experienced a new infatuation during the interwar period when hygienist theories popularized sport practice, outdoor life and sun bathing. Sports facilities are built on the banks of the river or on its islands, Physiopolis and the beach of Villennes on the island of the Platais, in Villennes-sur-Seine for example. This « golden age of leisure activities », whose image is widely diffused by postcards, lasts only a very limited time with compared to the phenomenon of progressive and continuous urbanization of the shores. Today, several islands of the Seine are still devoted to leisure activities. During the second half of the twentieth century, the unbuildable nature of most of them favored the development of sports and landscaping planning. Nevertheless, people camped in the island of the Commune (Maisons-Laffitte) or in that of Mousseaux. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Grande Île of Bennecourt welcomed a plot of mobile homes located on a camping-caravanning campground. The islands of Mézy and Juziers, now united, were occupied in large part by lots of recreational chalets built on stilts. « Venice 45 minutes from Paris » praised the advertising campaign for the plot of the island of Vaux at the beginning of the twentieth century. The enthusiasm for the islands persists, even though many of the residences have become main ones. Moreover, for their occupants, returning to their island each night is a bit of going on vacation every day.http://journals.openedition.org/insitu/15570holiday placeÎle-de-FranceSeine (river)islandleisure« guinguettes » (open-air dance halls) |
| spellingShingle | Isabelle Duhau Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? In Situ holiday place Île-de-France Seine (river) island leisure « guinguettes » (open-air dance halls) |
| title | Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? |
| title_full | Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? |
| title_fullStr | Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? |
| title_short | Les insulaires de la Seine francilienne : villégiateurs un jour, villégiateurs toujours ? |
| title_sort | les insulaires de la seine francilienne villegiateurs un jour villegiateurs toujours |
| topic | holiday place Île-de-France Seine (river) island leisure « guinguettes » (open-air dance halls) |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/insitu/15570 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT isabelleduhau lesinsulairesdelaseinefranciliennevillegiateursunjourvillegiateurstoujours |