Archive photo of the Saint-Jacques estate from the 1990s. (Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour)
In Val-d'Oise, on the edge of the Montmorency forest, stands the Saint-Jacques estate with its 45 hectares, 37 of which are forests and meadows. Rifaat al-Assad's former property, located at the gates of Paris, is engulfed by unruly vegetation. Here, time seems to have stopped. At the entrance, an old analog camera is a reminder that the premises were once under surveillance. The vast meadows have turned into wild fields, overrun by tall grass and dense brush. "The estate has become a giant dump; nobody takes care of it anymore," said Jaber S., who managed the estate for almost a decade. In the middle of what was once a stud farm, a concrete building smothered by climbing plants seems completely dormant. It houses what resembles a long basin. "The pool has been abandoned for 20 years. You should have seen it...
In Val-d'Oise, on the edge of the Montmorency forest, stands the Saint-Jacques estate with its 45 hectares, 37 of which are forests and meadows. Rifaat al-Assad's former property, located at the gates of Paris, is engulfed by unruly vegetation. Here, time seems to have stopped. At the entrance, an old analog camera is a reminder that the premises were once under surveillance. The vast meadows have turned into wild fields, overrun by tall grass and dense brush. "The estate has become a giant dump; nobody takes care of it anymore," said Jaber S., who managed the estate for almost a decade. In the middle of what was once a stud farm, a concrete building smothered by climbing plants seems completely dormant. It houses what resembles a long basin. "The pool has been abandoned for 20 years. You should have seen it...
