Do we notice the transformations in the landscapes around us? Do we see children grow up? It goes so slowly that it takes leaving and returning after a certain time for changes to really strike us.

This book helps us become more aware of the evolution – which can be overwhelming – of the familiar places around us, in order to understand what has taken place in the past century and to foresee tomorrow’s landscapes. With great restraint, the author describes how cars, traffic signs and lights, white lines and traffic circles have invaded our space; he shows how our obsession with security leads to putting up walls in villages in the South of France and taking down hedges in Normandy. He leads us to the tip of Brittany, where a hotel was erased from the horizon without anyone noticing; to the suburbs of Paris, where the landscape changes so quickly that it becomes disorienting; to Pilat Regional National Park, where the trees that are colonizing the abandoned prairies and reducing the sense of vast open space are causing great concern.

The book includes some one hundred photos, including ones from the private collections of well-known photographers, such as Raymond Depardon, Sophie Ristelhueber, John Davies, etc. Others belong to the National and Regional Photographic Observatory of the Landscape. Often presented in series, these images enable us to see at a glance how specific landscapes have evolved over time.

This book allows us to become aware of the evolution of our landscapes, through a number of lovely anecdotes, without striving for the exhaustive nature of a treatise. It includes some 100 photographs, most notably by Raymond Depardon, Sophie Ristelhueber and John Davies.