From the ateliers SNCF to the Parc des Ateliers

"Everyone was very attached to the SCNF workshops. People of Arles fought against the closure of the site. It was a fight of the city, its elected officials and the population (…) Then in ’83, the town hall changed. The workshops became a storage warehouse for Provence herbs, which was badly experienced by the Arlesians and especially by the railway men. Then the site became a kind of no man’s land frequented by junkies. Can you imagine these SNCF workshops, this energy, become a mere warehouse for Provence herbs and toilet paper? It was a real decay of the site… It was a very difficult period. So when the LUMA project arrived, it made people think about it."

Rolande Gontier