The highest administrative court confirms a previous decision of the administrative court of Versailles estimating that the wind farm project near Proust “would risk causing significant harm” to landscapes “closely linked to the life and work of Proust. ‘writer’, as the daily Libération revealed on Thursday.
The Combray Énergie company wanted to build eight wind turbines in the towns of Montigny-le-Chartif and Vieuxvicq, located a few kilometers from the rural town that Marcel Proust (1871-1922) made famous in Du Côté de Chez Swann.
The project was blocked in 2020 by the prefect of Eure-et-Loir, supported by the environmental defense association of residents of the Thironne and the society of friends of Marcel Proust and friends of Combray.
In its judgment rendered on Wednesday, the Council of State validates the decision of the Versailles court rendered in April 2022. The magistrates had held that “the planned wind turbines would be visible from certain places located within the perimeter of the remarkable heritage site of Illiers -Combray or on its outskirts to judge that the wind farm project would risk causing significant harm to a remarkable and classified site, recalls the Council of State.
The court of Versailles had “also noted that the bell tower of the church of Illiers-Combray and the garden of Pré Catelan, designed by Jules Amiot, uncle of Marcel Proust, are classified as historical monuments”.
The Council of State thus ruled in favor of the court for having taken “into consideration elements which relate to the historical, memorial, cultural and in particular literary dimensions of the landscape” in order to oppose the industrial project.