Although the idea of the transfer had been in the air for some time, the acceleration of events at the end of 1974 took everyone by surprise along the harbor in Toulon.
And quickly the logistical questions arise. Where to install the State services and the general council? Of course, Toulon has the sub-prefecture – the beautiful building along the boulevard Maréchal-Leclerc and which today houses the Hôtel des arts – but it is far from being able to absorb the hundreds of agents. So we improvise.
Some of the services are set up in the premises of the Departmental Equipment Directorate (DDE), near the Port Marchand, in conditions that are, to say the least, Spartan. The same question applies to the general council, which arrives in Toulon “in the suitcases” of the prefecture. Some Toulon residents remember meetings held in the premises of the tax office, very close to Place Noël-Blache.
In Toulon, the question becomes crucial. A site must be found. And a location is finally identified near the Lices district. At the level of the Vauban ramparts, slightly overhanging, there is an old military fort, the Gardanne barracks. It is quickly decided that the place would do the trick. But the work is long. The existing structure must first be destroyed. This is in 1978.
Work completed in 1981
The development of the new building was entrusted to two Parisian architects: Daniel Badani and Pierre Roux-Dorlut. The two men are particularly known for having built the Cité des Moulins in Nice and the Créteil prefecture. They imagined a modern building, which followed the slope. A sort of lookout point for the entire city of Toulon. More than forty years later, the building is still in operation. It houses all the State services, but not only that. The prefecture also benefits other administrations. The general council houses some of the services and above all has an imposing circular meeting room, where the Department and Metropolis meetings are still held today.
Hyères believed in its luck
On February 24, 1967, it was as President of the National Assembly, Mayor of Bordeaux, but above all leader of the Gaullist candidates in the legislative elections of March 1967 that Jacques Chaban Delmas made a stop in the Var. It was therefore probably with the desire to score points with the Hyères electorate that he announced in the city of palm trees that “the government was soon going to decide to transfer the Var prefecture from Draguignan to Hyères.”
In its edition of February 27, Le Monde echoes this statement. And adds that the man who would become Prime Minister in 1969 announced that this “transfer would be made from here at two years old”.
The hypothesis of seeing a prefect walking his embroideries of oak and olive leaves under the palm trees of Hyères does not, however, only depend on this thread. Olivier Guichard, at the same time delegated to regional planning, had also announced this installation. In passing, he also promised that he was trying to obtain the installation in Toulon of the National Social Security Center of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. A promise, which, it, was kept.
A few weeks later, the evening daily added that Pierre Harlaut, the mayor of Hyères, is “ready to welcome the departmental administration”The newspaper observes in passing that “There is no shortage of land to build a modern prefecture in a residential area” and, as a final argument, highlights the presence of the airport on the naval airbase, where “Air Inter planes providing a daily connection to Paris via Lyon will land from April 1st”.
