Dating back from the Middle Age,
the Vieux Village of Goussainville is located next to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
In the 60s, the airport convinced the people to sell them their houses at good prices to knock them down in order to avoid complaints from noise and pollution nuisances.
However, the church of the village was classified at the beginning of XXth century as historical monument preventing any building 500 meters around to be demolished.
Those hundreds of houses were thus left abandoned for decades.
The town hall bought back the houses for one symbolic euro in 2009 but struggled since then with Batiments de France that refuses any demolitions or with the Prefecture that refuses any restorations.
Meanwhile, nature is gradually gaining ground.
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