Simple nostalgia or a true golden age: what was Gien like in the 1960s and 1970s?

While many Gien residents shared, on social networks, the traditional ritual “it was better before”, the release of the census figures was a great opportunity to wonder what Gien was like “before”. That is to say until 1990, when the town had 16,477 inhabitants.

A number which will constitute a peak for the city. The climax of one of the “two flourishing Gien”, as Éric Chevert, president of the Historical and Archaeological Society of Giennois (Shag) calls it. “There was one before the war and one after reconstruction, in the 1960s and 1970s.”

“There were businesses everywhere”

His comrade, Philippe Germain, remembers “a very lively city center”. At a time when rue Gambetta and rue de Tlemcen had not been pedestrianized (they will be from 1984) and were accessible in both directions.