A versatile opinion speaks about a mobile coast line : a case study in Brittany, Western France

The coastal landscape of France is highly mobile, especially where the tidal range exceeds ten meters, like in Northern Brittany, on the English Channel. This mobility is strongly enhanced by storms, some of them having been exceptional during the last decades. The reaction of the local authorities to these storms is also highly variable. Some are getting used to cope with the changing coastline and do not make a great point of having such a mobile feature managed. Others react differently, and declare that storms are dangerous and create new risks along the coastline. The reason behind this difference is a political one. Some local communities use the storm in order to build an image of their coastline. They describe their coasts as vulnerable because they want to refuse the use of new equipment, or new industrial activity.