The Suburban Paris Ghost Town

Goussainville-Vieux Pays was a quiet little farming village, 20 kilometres from Paris until 1972 when the flightpath of the newly-built Charles de Gaulle Airport appeared overhead. The airport authority was forced to buy and look after many of the village's historic buildings when the noise of the airplanes drove residents to abandon their homes. A crash at a 1973 airshow over the town killed people and destroyed several houses. In the old town, or the ‘vieux pays’ only a handful of faithful residents remain, including a farmer and a carpenter. In 2009, Aéroports de Paris sold half of the historic village back to the community for a symbolic price of 1 euro.

More about this town that time forgot at Messy Nessy