Discover Poitou-Charentes Blog

Some good news for the tourism industry in the Charente-Maritime, where the Atlantic coastline took a deadly battering from Storm Xynthia in February.

 Though the physical signs of the storm are still visible in some of the seaside and beach resorts of the Charente-Maritime, the 2010 holiday season so far looks as if it is a good one.

 Resorts such as Fouras, near Rochefort, and the popular Île d’Oléron are reporting brisk business, while La Rochelle has seen high numbers of visitors too this summer.

 As for the Île de Ré, the most popular part of the Charente-Maritime – which is itself the second most popular department in France for holidaymakers – it seems relatively unscathed by the high winds and waves that crashed over it.

 ‘Whatever happens, the Île de Re is always the Île de Re,’ says one tourism official (presumably even if some bits of it are washed out to sea…).

The picture is not so rosy in all parts of the coastline, however. The beach at Aytré near La Rochelle was badly damaged by the storm and a number of camping areas are still closed.

 Elsewhere in the Poitou-Charentes region, campsites are mostly reporting strong bookings this summer, thanks to the fine weather and the economic crisis (meaning fewer French people are travelling abroad).

However the trend is for better-equipped more upmarket campsites – they seem to be the ones attracting the best bookings. Reservations at cheaper campsites are generally not doing so well.

As the citizens of Charente-Maritime begin the grim task of clearing up after the devastation wreaked by Storm Xynthia, the full impact of the wind and tides has begun to emerge.

Across France at least 52 died in the storm, most of them in the coastal resorts of the Vendée but many too in the Charente-Maritime. The worst hit areas here were the islands ÃŽle d’Oléron, ÃŽle de Ré, Aytré, La Rochelle and Châtelaillon Plage, and the department has reported at least eleven deaths. The coast to the south towards Royan was also hit, but less badly affected than areas further to the north.

The departments of the Vienne and Deux-Sèvres were also badly hit and they, together with the Charente-Maritime, were included in the official state declaration of a natural disaster. This means, in theory at least, that insurance claims for damage caused by the storm in those areas should be able to be processed, and quickly. In Poitou-Charentes the least affected department was the Charente, which was not included in the natural disaster status. Attention is now turning to why so many houses along the coast were built in areas prone to flooding from the sea.

Meanwhile businesses along the coastal area, a popular tourist area for the French and foreign holidaymakers, are having to take urgent action to get ready in time for the holiday season. The government has already pledged cash for stricken businesses, including oyster farms.