I'd never have guessed...

We've been puzzling since Easter about a new building that's going up on the edge of the airstrip at Lézignan.  With a tall hexagonal 'keep' and a more conventional two storey building adjoining, we wondered whether plans were afoot to develop it into an airport, starting with a proper control tower.  We've often muttered about how handy it would be to have an airport on the doorstep.  The runway must be of reasonable length, since the military occasionally come down with an old Transall out of which they launch parachutists: the notoriously under-powered Transall doesn't exactly land on a dime.  Lézignan currently has no lights, however, and no commercial buldings, and there's a proper airport half an hour away.  So that couldn't be it.  A 21st century oast house, perhaps?  Not a lot of point when it's surrounded by acres of carignan.  Well, Google to the rescue: it turns out to be a vertical wind tunnel, in which one will be able to simulate sky-diving.  One of the investors turns out to operate a similar rig not a mile from my old office in Switzerland, and it was evidently operating back in my day, à mon insu.  Not that I'd have been tempted, I think, had I known about it.  Its purpose is purely recreational, evidently: the gift for the man who has everything; an expensive party or team-building.  I suppose it might also come in handy if you felt like knowing what free fall is like before you commit to jumping out of a beat-up Turbolet.