« La Ruée vers l’Ouest ? »

Abstract

French coastal areas are much sought after and generally subject to high residential attraction, which itself gives rise to major regional challenges. However, there is a mismatch between the scale of these challenges and the problematic evaluation of the coastline's appeal, especially in France. The prospect of drawing on data from the 2006 census provides an excellent opportunity to examine this question with a particular focus on the Atlantic zone, which has emerged as the most attractive stretch of coastline in France since 1999. After considering the key indicators in gauging residential attraction, the article assesses the extent of this process within the cities of the Atlantic coast then sets out the modalities (geographical origin and profile of migrants, favoured areas for setting up home), primarily through a comparison between the port cities of Lorient and La Rochelle.

Keywords

• migration
• coastline
• city
• atlantic coast
• attraction
• census