La Rochelle and Ile de Ré - back for the summer
When Storm Xynthia hit, water poured into La Maison des Mouettes hotel-restaurant, just south of La Rochelle, writes Rebecca Lawn. It was just one of many hotels, restaurants, bars and even camping sites that were hit by what turned out to be a lethal combination of high winds and a spring tide.
But within hours, the local population turned out to help those in need - volunteers set up halls to provide food and clothes for families, days were organised to help clear farms of debris, and, with the tourist season fast-approaching, people turned up spontaneously to help clean up campsites, hotels and restaurants. ‘Clients, employees and strangers came round to help,’ says Sandy Faugere, a receptionist La Maison des Mouettes. ‘One of them found the welcome mat behind the building!’
That welcome mat will be scrubbed clean and ready to welcome visitors when the hotel opens on June 1. For La Maison des Mouettes, like everyone involved in the tourist industry along the coastline, is determined to be ready for the tourists, both French and foreign, that flock each summer to this beautiful part of France. ‘We have to look ahead now,’ says Sandy. ‘In fact, the plan is to make it even better than it was.’
Getting back on track in time for summer is hugely important as the Charente Maritime thrives on tourism. It brings in €1.8billion every year, and creating upwards of 20,000 jobs. ‘The department is always in either second or third place in France in terms of the number of tourists,’ says Stéphane Villain, president of the department’s tourism committee.
And one of the favourite tourist spots is the picturesque town of La Rochelle, pictured above. Despite being badly damaged by the storm - the Vieux port and Les Minimes port especially – the town will soon be ready to welcome visitors. ‘The old town was not touched,’ says Nadia Charmoillaux at the Tourist Office in La Rochelle. ‘And at the Vieux port, restaurants reopened half-way through the week following the storm. People got back on their feet again quickly.’
Four hotels and six campsites were forced to close, with uncertainty of the reopening dates but Stéphane Villain believes that the solidarity shown by so many people has the potential to turn things back round. ‘‘We will soon be able to receive tourists in the best conditions,’ he says firmly. ‘As though there had not been a storm.’
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