To limit the crowds, the number of people wishing to visit the island of Côtes-d’Armor daily will be regulated from Friday. This limitation is to last until August 25. It is variously appreciated by the inhabitants and the merchants.
“Every summer, it’s the same thing”, plague Christine. This resident of Île-de-Bréhat, in the Côtes d’Armor, comes to hope for rainy days like Tuesday, July 11. “Me, I’m very well there, with my raincoat. I’m delighted”, she says. On this rainy day, no “hordes of tourists”. They are up to 6,000 on the island when the sun shines at the height of summer. This Bréhatine can’t take it anymore. “You have to see the queues! We wanted to go to a restaurant one day, it was full of people and we came home to eat fried eggs. We come here for the silence and the beauty.”
“If we only have nervousness, it’s not funny. It’s not a pleasant living together.”
Christine, a resident of Île-de-Bréhatat franceinfo
The few hundred residents of Bréhat are impatiently awaiting these tourist quotas. “Access for day visitors to Île-de-Bréhat is limited from July 14 to August 25, 2023 to a maximum of 4,700 people from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays”, specifies the decree, available on the municipality’s website. The rest of the day and on weekends, access remains free. “It’s a figure that seems correct to us, assures a resident. Everyone is going to see the north coast, which is the most beautiful part of the island. So there’s a lot of traffic. It was damaged. People don’t pay much attention.” Beyond the damage, we must not forget the problems of waste or wastewater management.
Eliminate traffic peaks
The announcement of the introduction of quotas does not, however, only make people happy on the island. “Business-wise, I’m totally against [les quotas]. I find it a pity, says Mathilde, owner of a delicatessen. We live thanks to tourists. I have huge rent to pay in the winter. If in summer, we say to people: ‘no, don’t come because we are too much on the island!’ and that I don’t do my figure, in winter, I don’t hold out.”
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Above all, it is not a question of driving away tourists, replies the mayor of Bréhat, Olivier Carré, who issued the limitation decree. “The only thing we want to do with this regulation, explains the chosen one, it is to eliminate the peaks of frequentation. We don’t want more people. We don’t want less. We want to welcome them better. If we regulate, we protect the environment.
“We are going to allow a better reception in the shops. Our objective is absolutely not to impact the tourism economy, which represents around 50% of the island’s economy.”
Olivier Carré, the mayor of the townat franceinfo
At the end of the summer, the municipality will take stock of this experiment. The quota could be maintained next season. Raised, lowered… or suppressed if the initiative is not conclusive.
Île-de-Bréhat limits the number of day visitors during the tourist season – the report by Guillaume Farriol
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