Urban Exploration - The Abandoned Hotel

We received photos from a traveler and compiled them into a historical summary.

This place was found entirely by chance, and its discovery was simply a resonance of what I was attempting nearby. Confused? Let me explain!

Highway viaducts can have several possible architectures. I was attempting to enter the concrete box girder of a famous, massive structure using prestressed cables—the same kind of setup as the Jules Verne bridge in Amiens, where I had previously failed. The viaduct's box girder is traversed by a forest of prestressed cables intersecting in a web of complex shapes. It is very aesthetic. So, here I am in Occitanie at the first abutment of the viaduct. Failure. It’s a fortress. This bodes ill; all that’s left is to head to the second abutment, of course...

The journey by air is less than a kilometer; the one through the valley is a trek. And there, halfway through, at a crossroads, I stumble upon this abandoned hotel. Without a second thought, a quick "hello" to the parked tourists, and in I go!

This hotel had been open for a very long time, as one can find postcards of it that look remarkably old, though they are undated. The establishment was located at an ultra-strategic junction: two major national roads, a railway line from Paris to the deep South, and the banks of a river in a majestic setting. Suffice it to say, this gourmet establishment must have seen plenty of business.

Then, the "bad vibes" began to accumulate, gradually plunging the establishment into a financial disaster.

Shall we list them? The opening of the A75 highway, which caused this indented valley to be deserted, season after season, by its transit tourism. The gradual decommissioning of the SNCF railway line in favor of TGV high-speed lines—more lost traffic. The opening of the largest aggregate quarry in the department—titantic even on a regional scale—leading to a constant stream of trucks passing in front of the hotel, coupled with the railway line becoming a purely industrial asset. This "worst-of-the-worst" combination led to bankruptcy.

While the exact closing date is unknown, people mention the 2000s. Room prices are listed in Euros. The rates were rather modest, but perhaps that’s only because nowadays absolutely everything has become unaffordable; France seems determined to join the sad state of Venezuela.

Following the judicial liquidation, an auction was held with an extremely low starting price. What happened next remains a mystery to us, except that the establishment is sinking into a state of profound neglect and the most virulent vandalism. Yet, this place could have called for reflection and contemplation... Instead, the "demolition crews" had to move in: tags, trash, everything is shattered. It will take me several thousand years to understand such behavior.

The hotel can be described as quite vast. What will become of a place like this? Driven by such exacerbated vandalism, its only future will be to be purely and simply razed to the ground.