“It’s not finished yet, but here is our future vegetable garden!” A beautiful house with a large garden: this is what particularly attracted Maélia, 31, who arrived from the Paris region one and a half years ago with her husband and four children. “Here, we have just cleared and therefore the swimming pool will normally be held here next summer!”, she enthuses. Inside, sheltered from the wind, she details her choice: “We come from a small apartment of 60 square meters. We wanted space, a garden, so here we are good!”
Maélia and her family are not the only ones to have left the big French cities recently to settle in smaller towns. It is a form of revenge for medium-sized cities: during the pandemic, the French noticed the narrowness of their housing in large cities and many chose to move. According to a recent study by France Strategy, the majority of medium-sized towns have seen an increase in demography and employment in recent months. A desire to gain more space, with a garden in particular, but also to return to smaller city sizes. This is one of the lessons of the health crisis that the candidates for the presidential election will have to draw for their proposals on cities and territories during a major oral organized by the University of the city of tomorrow.
It is precisely the fact that Salon-de-Provence is a city on a human scale, which immediately appealed to Juliette, originally from the North. She moved there since this summer with her husband and daughter Stella. “There are a lot of small quality shops, there is everything nearby, we love it”, explains Juliet. For the young girl, the main asset of her “beautiful house”it is without hesitation “the swimming pool !”. And the mother adds: “Soon, we will have a small petanque court. We are becoming Southerners, all that is missing is the accent!” “Oh noreplies the teenager, I keep my accent.” “So we are Ch’tis Salonais”concludes the mother with a burst of laughter.
The “Ch’tis salonais” are obviously not the only ones to be seduced by this city located half an hour from Marseille and Avignon. Property prices have therefore risen sharply: +10% over the past two years.
And now, we have to be able to welcome everyone. David Ytier, deputy mayor and vice-president of the metropolis in charge of housing, presents a new district to the west of the city.
“Here you are in an area that was an industrial wasteland and which could be converted into housing. All types of housing: we have developed around twenty villas here, home ownership, social housing.”
David Ytier, Deputy Mayor of Salon-de-Provenceat franceinfo
The idea of this district is to recreate a mini-city: “What is very important for us is to have this mix of inhabitants who can make a city and next to that, local shops: a dozen shops at the bottom of buildings, public service because the city installs a crèche, a public park. So here you have the illustration of what we want to do: controlled urbanization, welcoming new inhabitants, but at the same time maintaining this quality of life.”
The city, which has not modified its local urban plan, will therefore continue to welcome 200 inhabitants per year. No more, so as not to distort what makes its charm.