No more marble and granite steles in the Aytré cemetery. In this small commune of Charente-Maritime, the deceased rests, buried on the ground, in a quiet wooded plot of 4000 m². A funeral that takes place according to a very specific protocol. Families must follow a charter. Embalming treatments are strictly prohibited here, the shrouds and clothing of the deceased are made of natural fiber. The box must be made of untreated wood or non-recycled materials.
The flowers are natural. Nothing should pollute the soil. What to leave this world without polluting it more. An ecological formula that many inhabitants like Marie adhere to: ” I find it much better than seeing all these tombs side by side “. Some also like the idea of ”back to earth”.
This cemetery will have cost the municipality less than 40,000 euros. Families also save. Relieved of a crypt, a tomb and an expensive coffin, the bill drops to 1500-2500 euros instead of the 5000 euros for a burial in a traditional cemetery.
An eternal, ecological and economical rest that is found a lot in the United States and England. The concept is also slowly developing in France, where the first natural cemetery was adopted by the city of Niort, in Deux-Sèvres, in 2014. Having become a national reference, today it hosts about a hundred dead.
