Visages villages
The Normandy village of Pirou-Plage almost became a holiday destination. In 1990, property developer Pier Invest launched a plan to build a hotel, two tennis courts, and 80 vacation homes. The initiative would transform the built environment and economy of this seaside area of 1,500 inhabitants—but not as anticipated or desired. Within a few years, Pier Invest had declared bankruptcy, leaving devastated local businesses and the shells of some 30 incomplete structures in its wake. French newspaper Le Monde called the site a “village fantome”; it was a stillborn community that never lived.
Pirou-Plage is one of the rural locations that Agnes Varda and her collaborator, thirtysomething street artist JR, visit in their whimsical travelogue . A drone shot offers
