Destroyed to the tune of 80 to 90% following the devastating fires of last July, the five campsites backing onto the Dune du Pilat are working hard to reopen as soon as possible. The most advanced will be the Dune campsite (aka Les Flots Bleus), from April.
The general assembly of the Sdhpa of Gironde on February 21, gave the opportunity to the managers of the burnt campsites of the Dune du Pilat to testify to the progress of the work in their establishments. At the head of the association which brings together the five establishments, Cédric Rocher, immediately confided: “ we have all received many words of affection from clients and colleagues. It’s a lot of fun!
“. And to announce everyone leaves, and as President Macron promised us during his visit on July 20, everything has been done so that we can stay on the site, and restart as soon as possible
“. His own campsite, Yelloh! Pyla Panorama Village will reopen on July 1 until September 18. ” we will market half of our capacity, i.e. 200 of our 450 pitches, including 25 rentals out of the 105 previously. But for the time being I did not wish to open rental reservations. Luckily, the children’s games and the bar were spared. Staff are being recruited
».
Present at the GA, Sébastien and Aurélie Cordier, as well as Franck Couderc, the trio at the head of the Dune campsite, had a lot of information to give. Campsite least affected by the fire, the star of the film “Camping”, (Les Flots Bleus) will be of the five establishments on the dune the one that will reopen the earliest, from April 2. It is also the one, if not the only one, that communicates widely on its Facebook page, relaying all the reports concerning it (TF1, radios, etc.) up to the acquisition of electric utility vehicles and the launch of their new website with the opening of reservations from January 13. In charge of communication, Aurélie Cordier explains: “we will open with 200 pitches out of 250, including around twenty new lodge tents, and around ten mobile homes of the Samibois brand, 5 places, very well integrated. Sanitary will be available
“. And to entrust: “from mid-January, the first reservations arrived. We had messages of encouragement, lots of testimonies of support
. And to clarify: we have not started work on the pool, but it should be operational in two months
“; Sébastien Cordier, present when the new prefect Etienne Guyot visited the disaster site on February 13, adds: ” We work very well with government agencies, it’s gratifying”
.
Imperative opening, even with reduced reception capacities
For its part, Pyla Campingowned by Stéphane Carella and Mathieu Valbuena, announces a season from July 1 to November 5.
Reached by telephone on February 24, the campsite Tohapi The Forest of Pilat (395 pitches and more than 8,000 families welcomed each year) informs “ for three months we have been waiting for the demolition permit. Everything has been at a standstill for two weeks, since the trees were cut down.
The Tohapi website, however, specifies the opening dates of the campsite, from July 8 until August 27.
Also contacted by telephone, Nicolas Houé, Managing Director of the Capfun group, announced for Little Nice « a partial opening in June, with only 40 mobile homes, and no pitches, restaurants or bars
“. For the swimming pool, there is uncertainty, because if it was not affected by the fire, there are fears of restarting with a technical room that is certainly damaged.
In order to benefit from the “operating loss” compensation from the insurance, the campsites must imperatively reopen before July 12th. So it seems to be on the right track. As for the filing of development permits, this is not the priority, only two campsites have done so at the end of February.