70 years ago, the Beausoleil district emerged from the ground, a railway village in the city.

L’élue Chantal May dévoile la plaque.

En fin de matinée, la Ville a posé une plaque, à l’angle des rues Barcelone et Bruxelles, annonçant la dénomination officielle du Jardin des Castors cheminots mutualistes nîmois.

Chantal May, deputy delegate for parks, gardens and shared gardens, representing the Mayor, unveiled at the end of the morning, in the presence of Jean-Marie Habouzit, president of the Route d’Arles – Beausoleil neighborhood committee, the plaque announcing the official name of the Jardin des Castors cheminots mutualistes nîmois.

This event, which marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Beausoleil district, a railway village in the city of Nîmes, took place in the presence of many elected officials, including Franck Proust, Pascal Gourdel, Christian Bastid and Alain Clary, representatives of associations and Farandoleurs cheminots Nîmes. It is at the corner of rue de Barcelone and rue Ernest-Bruxelles that this plaque was placed, on a symbolic square for the old people because it was synonymous with festivities in the late 1950s and early 1960s with Saint-Jean bonfires, traveling circuses and balls with a neighborhood orchestra.

A united and supportive community

“This garden is the celebration of the unique history of this neighborhood that marked a real turning point in mutualist life in France. A real change of life gave birth to a united and supportive community, explained Chantal May. This garden is in continuity, a place of life, of dialogue, of solidarity. And then this neighborhood is also a bit mine for having worn out my shoes in my youth on the side of the road to Arles."

Jean-Marie Habouzit evoked "the formidable exhibition retracing the history of these 290 families then benefiting from a right to housing". It was a beautiful moment full of memories, confided Mireille Michel, wife of Mr. Longuet who, with Frank Pic, remembered the school and other Soulier grocery store with the Juva 4 delivery.

It was on a humorous note, with the tune of I hear the train whistle by Richard Anthony that people headed towards the aperitif offered by the City and the exhibition set up by the neighborhood committee recounting the epic of the Beavers railway workers of Nîmes.