The socio-environmental conflict at Notre-Dame-des-Landes is currently one of the most important eco-conflicts in Europe. Despite its unique characteristics – its long duration, its complexity, the high political and financial costs involved, the forms of political innovation generated, the questions of governance raised – the social sciences seem to have ignored this important place. First, we consider the place of conflict itself and the possibilities for honest social-science research that it offers. Second, we propose to go beyond the usual limits of the conflict area and describe how local arts of resistance combine different means of inhabiting the conflict area and generating counter-expertise. In this way, we wish to show how its status as a key political battleground and the associated multi-scale networks are interconnected. Through these three entry points, we hope to shed light on the day-to-day reality of “conscious inhabitation” of places as a political resource and strategy shared by heterogeneous actors.