This paper addresses the question of the relevance and usefulness of choice experiment (CE) survey in accompanying a restoration project of an ordinary, coastal stream in the floodplain of the Vistre River, near Nimes (South of France). While flood control has been the main argument supporting early projects reshaping the Vistre river bed under the “Mastery over Nature” paradigm, this policy proved to be inefficient to avoid catastrophic flood events. Furthermore, considering the poor ecological status of the river, on-going restoration projects aim at integrating additional objectives like river ecosystem quality and access to that local environmental asset, in line with the “Room for river” ethics. In agreement with the local authorities, we performed a CE survey for assessing the public values attached to the restoration of the Vistre River basin, and understanding their preferences heterogeneity. A multinomial model with and without interaction between individual characteristics and restoration attributes, as well as a latent class model were estimated. Contrary to the expectations of main stakeholders, the results demonstrated that improvements in the quality of the river’s environment are more valued by local residents than flood control. Respondents’ ethics and confidence in the efficiency of the project management has a great influence on the heterogeneity of willingness to pay for restoration.