Comedian Jamel Debbouze’s Unfulfilled Dream: Grand Estate in Hometown Trappes

Jamel Debbouze is a lover of Trappes, the city where he grew up. After achieving fame, the Franco-Moroccan comedian offered his parents a nice house in Elancourt, the city bordering Trappes, before thinking of realizing his teenage dream, that of acquiring a large plot of land in Trappes and turning it into a grand residence, a haven of peace. An old hunting lodge was already erected on this property located in a forest on the border between the municipality of Elancourt and that of Maurepas, Le Parisien reported in 2013, specifying that this building is just steps away from the new property of the comedian’s parents when he was a teenager. But the comedian had to abandon this beautiful project, because "it did not comply with urban planning law," Jean-Michel Fourgous, the mayor of Elancourt, had explained at the time.

"He is a very well-known artist, he wanted something grandiose, I understand that. But his project was completely out of urban planning norms. Not authorizing it had nothing to do with a political will, it was simply impossible in that location. There were classifications that did not allow it. He wanted to build a pool surrounding his entire house. It was good. It’s near the city where he spent all his youth, all that was perfectly understandable. But he had a hard time understanding that to carry out his project, he would have had to change the law at the national level. We were rather happy to welcome a personality like his. Everything that could have been done would have been done, but simply, the law did not allow it," details this mayor still in office to Purepeople.

Shortly after, the house was left abandoned. The forest invades the entire property. Graffiti and tags on the walls. "This house is deteriorating more and more, the roof has been broken, explained a passer-by who is used to walking in this forest to Le Parisien. It has been looted, there are no more doors or windows. Young people continue to do whatever they want there. The municipal police even advise us not to go there alone." The building becomes a refuge for squatters. The lifeless body of Laurent, a 47-year-old homeless man, had been found in the building. "A natural death," the investigation had concluded at the time. This news would have saddened the comedian. Ten years ago, Jamel was still planning to carry out "beautiful projects" on his abandoned land. Since then, nothing. "I don’t know what became of this land, whether it was sold," the mayor of the city confides.