La Barben: the Prefect supports Rocher Mistral and is overruled by the Council of State

How far will the public authorities go to defend the indefensible in the never-ending case of the Château de La Barben transformed into an amusement park under the name of Rocher Mistral? After the Minister Delegate for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, who came to give a laudatory speech at the park’s inauguration (see article), after the considerable financial support given to the project by the Bouches-du-Rhône département and the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region (see article), it is now the Prefect Christophe Mirmand who is trying to come to the rescue of the company whose practices his own departments have repeatedly denounced. As for the support given to Vianney d’Alançon by the sub-prefect of the Aix-en-Provence district, Bruno Cassette, this no longer comes as a surprise: the two men are on a first-name basis.

Rocher Mistral was convicted at first instance of a large number of offences (see article). Even though he has appealed, which suspends the sentences, this makes the Prefect’s behaviour all the more incomprehensible, especially when he comes to ask for the reopening of a path that leads to the car park banned by the Prefecture and for which Rocher Mistral has been sentenced (ill. 1)! On 6 July 2023, the mayor issued a decree banning all vehicular traffic on this road. Of course, this didn’t stop Rocher Mistral from ignoring the order and keeping its unauthorised car park accessible via a prohibited path. That’s the rule now: administrative or judicial decisions don’t matter, Vianney d’Alançon doesn’t care. Nevertheless, on 18 March, with the illegal car park still in use, the mayor installed barriers on the path to prevent motorised vehicles from accessing it. So what did Rocher Mistral do? Of course, he rushed…