The adoption of the national integrated coastline management strategy in 2012 by the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE) in France, follows the lessons of the storm Xynthia (2010). Through this document, the Government encourages local authorities to consider managed retreat (relocation) as adaptation measure against coastal risks of erosion and marine submersion. Past projects of retreat or elimination had, however, very low social acceptance. The aim of this paper is to confront the way French government considers relocation, with the local realities. It is based on the analysis of interviews with institutional actors. Interviewees were chosen for their involvement in four pilot projects supported by the call for project "Experiment of relocation" proposed by the MEDDE. It appears that this measure faces several difficulties in terms of time scales, spatial scales, but also financial and land management issues. In the current context of decentralisation of the French government, the relocation also faces broader issues of coordination between local and global scale. However such approaches, planned over the long term, seem essential for an efficient adaptation to the current climate changes.