The growth of the Sables-d’Or-les-Pins seaside resort was interrupted by the economic crisis in the 1930s, leaving the high street and seafront unfinished. While the area has many assets to offer, they are virtually unnoticeable from the two primary thoroughfares:

• Unusual geological features combining pink granite bedrock, an estuary, a marsh and a range of coastal dunes
• A bold urban masterplan relying on a host of structural planted spaces and quality architectural elements

The project aimed at expressing that diversity along the seafront and the high street by using a vocabulary that reinterprets the existing surrounding landscape and architecture. The entire road network was reduced to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street, to slow down traffic and to clear vast stretches of grassy roadside verges dotted with pine trees.
The seafront was also restored to pedestrians by redistributing the parking spots within the resort, which consequently encouraged tourists to explore the area’s architectural and landscaped features. A large pedestrian plaza highlights the role of the two primary thoroughfares and puts the focus on the resort’s key attraction: the promenade along the beach, the casino, the green framed by cypresses and the monumental hexagonal arcade building.
In terms of synergy, special efforts in signage and some lighting have boosted the landscaping project, especially when it comes to the entrances to the resort. Similarly, this enhances the shopping aspect of the high street as well as the night time uses specific to seaside resorts.

Feedback (last visit in 2013)

• The planted spaces are not being properly managed, despite a detailed user manual
• Tutors have still not been removed 6 years after planting!
• Leafy plants have been compressed like shrubs.
  • Grassy parking spots are not refreshed
• The resin used for ground markings has a short lifespan
• The sculpture in the plaza was removed. The plaza is now dotted with giant multi-coloured plastic flowerpots… Unfortunately, they are not artworks by Jean-Pierre Reynaud!

The Rance-Frémur rest area is located on county highway RD766, bypassing the municipalities of Pleslin and Tréméreuc. It is part of the improvement works performed on the Dinan to Dinard route, providing users with a county-level halt and information point at the border between Côtes-d’Armor and Ille-et-Vilaine. The rest area aims at enhancing the existing site by taking advantage of the views across the surrounding landscape (prairies and wooded areas) to compensate for the relatively small size of the site. To that end, a variety of processes were used in order to favour a feeling of open spaces and wide vistas that go way beyond the limits of the property.
The building acts as a visual feature announcing the presence of the rest area in the vicinity. It encloses and supports the site’s overall composition and appears to serve as a backdrop to the road.
On the way to Tréméreuc, a holding basin featuring a flowery prairie provides a quality foreground and filters the view without obscuring it. Those driving through the site are encouraged to explore the area while distancing themselves from a secure pedestrian section. Visitors are guided towards the toilets through serene countryside which separates them from the car parks without blocking the view. This grassy area features an apple orchard which is used as a place to relax or picnic, as well as being a conservatory of ancient plant varieties.

Feedback (last visit in 2016)

• The lettering on the building, which had rusted, was recently repainted.
• Thanks to a design-phase partnership with the Mordus de la Pomme association, grafts from ancient varieties were grafted on to apple trees by the town’s children. Nowadays, the orchard serves as a conservatory orchard for cider apples and eating apples.
• The apple trees give lots of apples in season, so it is rather nice to stop over there in the autumn, because your dessert is there for the picking.
• New businesses have set up nearby, including a beekeeper whose land directly adjoins the rest area.
• The picnic area is used by the neighbouring businesses for their lunchbreak.

• The site’s industrial past: the presence of water (which was the reason for the paper mill in the first place) led to the creation of hydraulic devices. The project brings out how the water was tamed, how far the former factory stretched, and it reveals the sculptural nature of the remnants which we have highlighted.
• The site’s geographic scope: The project exposes the relation between the site’s complex topography and the overall topography of the entire valley: docks, balconies over the water, lookouts to take in the whole view.
• The site’s ecological challenges: A listed NATURA 2000 site, it is bolstered and enhanced by the project and its forceful environmental approach:
  • All demolition waste was recycled on site, and machine parts from the former factory are being reused
  • Reclaiming work was performed on the riverbanks, trees were planted, seedbeds from the site were secured, and an experimental garden was created to observe natural fallow cycles
  • A habitat was set up for bats in the factory’s basement
  • The site’s artistic potential: We kept the existing graffiti on certain facades for it fitted well with the site’s features. In addition, the project provides various infrastructures that could host art events (tiered seating, a stage area, pedestals for sculptures) with a view to giving the site a second life.

Feedback (last visit in 2015)

• There were no prior discussions with the contracting authority about the art sculptures involved in the site’s renewal project, and so the artworks are not exactly “on par” with the rest on an aesthetic level. Pity!
• The same goes for the signage, which is really inconsistent and where the worst can be seen side by side with the best. Fortunately, “the worst” is not too visible.
• The site appears to be well managed, showing just the right amount of “slack” to ensure that the venue retains its melancholy charm.
• Every year, the site hosts cultural and art events. Also it is listed in a number of Brittany tourist guides, including Guide du Routard.
• On several occasions, I met former project workers strolling through with their family. This means that the memory of the site is alive and well, and that’s the main thing!

Elected officials wanted to give a new impetus to the resort, which had become dated, especially regarding its decrepit facilities and the lack of any hosting infrastructures. In parallel with the renewal, a hiking trail, accessible to the motor-impaired, was commissioned by the General Council (project-managed by another team from architects Lafon/Faunière).
The site was remodelled in such a way as to highlight the spectacular nature of the relief and its geology, and to enhance the specific features of the holding lake. Motor traffic was reorganised using one-way streets, while parking was moved at a distance in order to relieve the pressure by the beach, and to promote safety throughout this sector so popular with families.
The beach was extended and partly turned into a promenade complete with a small marina around a mooring pontoon and a dry dock. In addition, the renewal has provided a more lived-in and functional aspect around the restaurants. A new architectural reception facility (first-aid station, toilets, sports equipment rentals) provides the final touch.

Feedback (last visit in 2013)

• The development’s conditional lot, a vast prairie where they planned an extensive parking lot featuring substantial landscaping, was handed to… a surveyor! Of course, this new development did not trouble itself with obeying the initial intent, whether in terms of the design or the choice of materials and plants.

Feedback (last visit in 2009)

• The grassy seating set within the lawn was put in service too early, so it was removed and replaced with standard picnic furniture.
• The rest area’s grassy sloping bank to the south, which was supposed to blend in with the surrounding countryside, has been covered over with a plastic tarpaulin planted with pink spirea… the excuse being upkeep concerns! Why didn’t they let the neighbour’s cows come and mow the slope, whose top part is protected by a wire fence integrated into a hedge? After all, that would have been free!
• The ugly pink freedom headstone which had been erected there, even though there was no good reason for its presence since neither the motorway nor the rest area were around for D-Day, was eventually vandalised… and I was most relieved about that. All the same I was grateful, for it allowed me to find out about an unknown episode in my family history. Nevertheless, I am not particularly fond of historical fabrication, nor do I like works of dubious aesthetic merit made by a sculptor whose claim to fame was to have made a bust of Mussolini and one of Pétain. History can sometimes produce strange turnarounds.
• The tutors supporting the trees have not been removed.