Nearly 80% of the Flots Bleus campsite had burned down last summer, during the monster fires that hit the Gironde. Nearly 7 months later, the reconstruction is progressing and gives hope of a reopening in April. With the promise to do differently in the face of fire risk.
A plain of sand, and pipes and electrical ducts coming out of it. Here is a rough outline of what remains of the Flots Bleus campsite, nearly seven months after the monster fire which destroyed nearly 80% of its surface area. “It was apocalyptic. There were inexplicable corridors of fireremembers Aurélie Cordier-Steere, one of the owners of the campsite. One object remained completely intact and behind, a completely charred tree. There are trees that have exploded, but a meter later, it’s as if nothing had happened.” The caravan that served as a snack for Franck Dubosc in the films Camping has remained intact, as have the administrative buildings and their legendary blue shutters. “The Movie Star”smiles the owner.
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And if she has found a smile, it is also because the work is progressing quickly. “We are even ahead”, underlines Pierre Wavrant, in charge of the sanitation part of the site with his company ARSM. Before arriving at the reconstruction of the first lodges, which began several weeks ago, a long cleaning work was carried out, says Aurélie Cordier-Steere. “The heat was so dense that everything burned and melted into the sand. The cleanup crews came in with big magnets to pull out all the scrap metal.”
“They took out 3.5 tonnes of scrap metal, which had melted into the sand.”
Aurélie Cordier-Steere, owner of the Flots Bleus campsiteat franceinfo
“We start from a blank canvas”, rejoices the owner, happy to see from the trauma of last year emerging opportunities to completely rethink the campsite. If she seems confident about the possibility of welcoming travelers from the April holidays, it still seems hard to believe. The work continues, the roads of the campsite have not yet been redone and the immense plain of sand in the center of the place does not seem very welcoming for the time being.
Planchas instead of barbecues
The recovery will only be partial this year. Only one toilet is in good condition, and it will mainly be tents and motorhomes that the Dune campsite, the official name of the Flots Bleus, will be able to accommodate. The real goal is April 2024, says Aurélie Cordier-Steere, for which the manager hopes “have all the infrastructure” and in particular the “cottages” which is planned to be rebuilt. Why reopen in partial mode? “Because we long for one thing, to openresponds tit for tat Aurélie Cordier-Steere. July 19 [jour de l’évacuation, ndlr], we were all floored. Seeing this site so touched, it really affected us all. It feels good today to see him recover.”
Last year’s flames also acted as an electroshock: no way to live again “last summer’s hell”, explains Aurélie Cordier-Steere. The campsite has therefore taken the decision to remove barbecues, replaced by electric planchas, less risky during dry and hot summers which are likely to be repeated now in Gironde.
“We have to realize that climate change is on the way. What we can try to do is to work with its vagaries.”
Aurelie Cordier-Steereat franceinfo
A “educational course” will also be installed on the campsite, to warn holidaymakers of the risk of fire, and to make them more widely aware of local environmental prevention issues. “We are on a classified site. We will also try to move forward on the recovery of gray water, energy savings”list the one who is also in charge of communication and marketing of the family business.
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Use the burned woods to rebuild
The other initiative taken by the management of the campsite is to “reuse burnt wood”. Planks were therefore debited from the still healthy wood of the charred trees last summer. They will be used to build the new cladding, the boundaries between the pitches and the terraces imagined for this revival. “It’s a bit of our wink and our collective memory of what happened last year”, emphasizes Aurélie Cordier-Steere. A way, also, to place at the heart of this reconstruction the memory of the major natural risk facing the forests of the department.
The site which will open, in the coming months, is also that of the reforestation of the campsite, of which almost all of the vegetation has burned down. And on the subject, the management was advised by an arboreal expert. “We collected all the pine cones from the campsite to replant them and reuse them”, details the manager. These seeds represent the arboreal DNA of the campsite. They are the ones who will have the highest probability of resuming, compared to seeds from outside.
Tourists, in any case, are eagerly awaited. “Sometimes we don’t like them, but economically we like them”, jokes Pierre Wavrant. And they will be there, according to Aurélie Cordier-Steere.
“We opened the site for bookings in early January, and within two hours we had people calling us to book.”
Aurélie Cordier-Steere, owner of the Flots Bleus campsiteat franceinfo
“It’s nice to see that people follow us”she said with a smile, grateful to have “a lot of chance”. “We are already out of the tunnel. We are eager for our comrades and neighbors to take the same rhythm as us. We want them to follow us.” And it is true that the contrast is striking. A few meters from the Flots Bleus, on the sites of the other campsites, the charred ruins are still standing, the sand still black and the carcasses of the trees are only just beginning to be evacuated. To believe that the star of the cinema really plays its role of good fairy to make reappear from the ashes this place which it made so popular.
“We can’t wait to open”: at the Flots Bleus campsite, the fires of last summer are just a memory – A report by Théo Uhart
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