'Le camping', an egalitarian symbol of French summers, faces a fiery future

BISCARROSSE, France, Aug 1 - The order to evacuate came around 8.30 p.m. — just as families were sitting down to dinner. Wildfire flames were bearing down on a campsite in southwest France, and police told manager Hadrien Folliot he had little time to remove roughly 1,200 holidaymakers.

Less than half an hour later, the site was empty.

"They had to leave very, very quickly," said Folliot, recalling the evacuation of the Domaine de La Rive campsite near the town of Biscarrosse, one of 20 he manages in a region of pine forests and long sandy Atlantic beaches. "Many customers left their meals on the tables. They were in the middle of eating."

The scene was a stark illustration of a growing threat facing one of France's most cherished holiday traditions.

Born out of a wave of social reforms 90 years ago that introduced paid holidays and democratised leisure time, 'le camping' has come to embody an egalitarian ideal of summer, travel and freedom.

France's 7,400 campsites are cherished places where children play late into the night, teenagers sneak their first kiss, and adults clink milky glasses of pastis with neighbours from across France whom they meet year after year.

But as French camping approaches its centenary, an industry that has shaped generations of family holidays finds itself increasingly exposed to the realities of a warming climate.

"Campings are located in forests, by the sea, and along rivers, which is why we are directly affected by wildfires," said Nicolas Dayot, president of France's National Federation of Outdoor Lodging. "We need to find solutions. We are now in the 21st century, not the 20th."

A WAKE-UP CALL

Folliot and his team returned to the campsite this week to find it untouched by the fire. Yet traces of the abrupt exodus were everywhere: an abandoned blow-up flamingo, slowly deflating; an opened bottle of wine, waiting to be drunk.

Guests are due to return this weekend, but Folliot estimates losses of around €2 million ($2.30 million), equivalent to 15% of annual turnover. He said insurance was unlikely to cover the cost of refunds or lost business from the ban on hosting holidaymakers.

The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region where the Gironde and Landes fires broke out is France's camping epicentre.

Dayot said 62 campsites had been evacuated in the wildfire-affected area, with one completely destroyed and three suffering minor damage. At a campsite near Lège-Cap-Ferret, which Reuters visited with firefighters, the flames had been extinguished just two metres away from hastily abandoned tents.

Dayot said the fires had prompted many cancellations for late July and August, a month which typically represents 40% of campsites' annual business.

While the sector as a whole could absorb the blow, he said, smaller family-run businesses were particularly vulnerable. The industry must now consider everything from replanting vegetation and redesigning campsite layouts to relocating some sites altogether and improving access to water for firefighting.

Folliot said this year's fires were a wake-up call: "We have to re-learn how to live with the forest, with the climatic conditions we now face."

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Olivier Sirost, a sociologist who has studied "le camping," said the idea of vacationing in nature was born in Britain in the late 19th century, but soon migrated to France, where it became closely associated with the paid holidays introduced by Leon Blum's Popular Front government in 1936.

Campsites took off in the 60s and 70s as cars and caravans became more common, allowing working families an affordable way to explore the country.

The industry began to professionalise in the 1980s, when around half of campsites were still municipally owned. These days, over 80% are privately run, with investment funds backing some firms that own up to 250 sites.

The cost of an average night at a campsite is 22 euros, Dayot said, compared with 116 euros for a hotel.

Increased private ownership, coupled with changing consumer expectations, has led to a gentrification of camping. Although many cheaper sites have benefited from France's cost-of-living crisis, 5-star venues can easily cost 2,000 euros a week.

"They've become places with television, air conditioning, swimming pools with gigantic water slides," said Fabien Onteniente, who directed a popular trilogy of "Camping" films. "There is no longer much that is ecological about them."

Onteniente has first-hand experience of the threat. The Flots Bleus campsite in southwest France, where he filmed the trilogy, was largely destroyed by wildfire in 2022.

He said campsites were a sort of laboratory where modern French identity was forged, and so it was imperative the industry adapt to a hotter future.

"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Fraternity is important," he said. "That's what I love about campsites: People are together. They play games together. There is a good atmosphere. And then at the end of the holidays, people say: 'See you next year.'" REUTERS