The saviour of Cap Ferret wages war with the sea — and developers
A dmirers view Benoît Bartherotte as a hero who has fought against the vicissitudes of nature and the avarice of humanity to preserve one of the finest beauty spots in France. Detractors see him as a self-serving landowner who has helped to turn Cap Ferret, a headland on the Atlantic coast, into an enclave for the super-rich.
In the mid-1980s, Bartherotte, then a celebrated Parisian fashion designer, decided to change career. He got rid of his Rolls-Royce, moved out of his mansion and took his wife and seven children to live in a wooden hut by the sea in the southwest of the country.
Bartherotte's new home was on Cap Ferret, where he had spent his childhood holidays. Over the past 40 years he has fought to ensure the area remains as he remembered it as a boy.
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