Stemming the tide in Normandy

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Coastal erosion has become a serious problem for many seaside communities, no more so than in Normandy, in north-west France, where rising sea levels, strong tides and stronger storms have swept away homes, sand dunes and beaches.

Every year the sea here is reclaiming several metres of coastline. But there are arguments over what to do about it.

In the area around Coutainville beachfront homeowners, oyster producers and campsites are confronting local and national authority plans for some of them to move and to allow nature to take its course. Some locals, suspicious of outside influence, argue this is a conspiracy by environmentalists to get rid of them. And yet others say the growing impact of climate change on coastal erosion is there for all to see.

Carolyn Lamboley speaks to those on both sides of the debate about what can be done to stem the tide.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:10.3	I'm in the water.
0:12.1	I swear, it's not that time.
0:15.3	I reckon it's about 16 degrees Celsius today.
0:18.6	Yeah.
0:19.6	That's Normandy for you.
0:21.4	Come on.
0:23.8	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:27.4	I'm Carolyn Lomboli, and this is assignment from Normandy in northwest France.
0:35.2	It's low tide, and the hard, wet sand is glistening, stretching out just about as far as the eye can see.
0:42.7	To the right, I can catch a glimpse of the Channel Island of Jersey, and to the left, the Chosei Islands.
0:49.5	I grew up coming to this town, Coutanjil, every summer.
0:53.7	Usually, we would come for the best-day national
0:56.0	holiday in mid-July. There would be waffles at the Sussex Chaud in the town center, and then we'd
1:02.3	had to wash the fireworks, an immovable family tradition that years later, I'm still attached to.
1:11.6	Kutzen-Riv is one of those places where time seems to stand still.
1:15.6	The 1970s wallpaper in my grandma's house, the chime of the clock, and other rituals, like this one.
1:34.5	Fabien doesn't live here, but she's been coming to the same rock, her rock, as she calls it, for 40 years.
1:44.0	It's sunset, and she's digging for baloed clams, a local delicacy for tonight's apéro, pre-dinner drinks.
1:51.0	You need to look out for two small holes, usually just under a rock.
2:01.6	But the thing is, times are changing. Every year, the sea level is rising, and with it, the concerns of local residents and the oyster producers.
2:09.6	They form the backbone of the local economy, but they're threatened by rising sea levels. Every year, several meters
	...

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