Near Toulouse, the “Hobbit house” of a homeless person will soon be evacuated at the request of the municipality

Near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), in Tournefeuille, a homeless person has built a miniature castle that looks like a movie set. Walkers are captivated by this unusual construction. But the town hall asks him to evacuate the premises as soon as possible.

A stone house. A tiny foam front door and windows. A roof dominated by three narrow towers. It is in this strange dwelling that a homeless person has been living for 8 months. Installed on the banks of the Touch, in a public park in the town of Tournefeuille, near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), a real cabin has been created, worthy of a miniature castle from the tales of our childhood.

But this accommodation must to disappear before the end of the year. For security reasons, the municipality of Tournefeuille asked for its demolition and even posted a warning sign.

This homeless man in his fifties does not intend to abandon his cabin so quickly and rebuild it elsewhere in the middle of winter. “I am illegal but there is still a law that governs the expulsion of a person. And you have to respect it“, he says. This fifty-year-old found himself on the street after being evicted from his home by squatters.

He then pitched his tent in the green space of the town of Tournefeuille, which did not immediately appeal to the local residents. “A lady told me that it was not very clean and pretty. Indeed, she was right. So I said I was gonna do something prettier“. To make his presence accepted, he first embarked on the construction of a storefront, built from blocks of foam. But very quickly, he said to himself that by continuing, he could have a roof and walls. .

“People liked it so one thing leading to another it became a little cabin“, he confides. A very atypical installation, so much so that local residents now stop in large numbers to look at it or photograph it. Very quickly, it becomes the attraction of the district and is even nicknamed “the hobbit house“in reference to Tolkien’s book”The Lord of the Rings“.”It arouses curiosity and develops the imagination“, laughs a passerby.

Faced with this success, this former animator for children organizes workshops for making foam characters. He invites children and their parents from the neighborhood to share his passion for construction.

His magic cabin is bordered by a “fluff tree”, who works directly for the “reintroduction of the plush in its natural environment“. The fifty-year-old keeps his child’s soul and has fun laughing at everything. He now lives a life “that he chose“. But if he wants to follow the request of the town hall, this homeless is going to have to leave this magical world and demolish his “dwarf house“before January 2.

(With Emmanuel Watt)