Which meant Celles had to be inundated.
Village Celles by lake Salagou.
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The villagers put up a fight and resisted the forceful evacuation for ten years.
Shortly after, the water began to creep up towards the village.
The plan was to raise the water level in two stagesfirst to 139 meters and then to 150 meters.
The second stage would have engulfed the village which lies at a mean altitude of 144 meters.
Celles was abandoned for nothing.
A few determined villagers continued to fight the abandonment of the village.
Some of them actually moved among the ruins to guard what remained of the village from vandals.
Census records throughout the years show that Celles was never totally abandoned.
From sixty residents in the middle of the 1950s, the population fell to only five in 1975.
Then it started climbing again.
Our project is an ongoing struggle that is proceeding slowly.
Everyone thought we were utopians.
Goudal hopes the village will return to its former glory by the end of the decade.
Photo:Sourbron Marc/Wikimedia Commons
Lake Salagou.
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Photo:Seb Pochet/Shutterstock.com
Photo:OfirYR/Shutterstock.com
