Urban Exploration - The burning stonecrop campsite
This curious subject concerns an abandoned campsite, which is quite unusual among our documentary practices. It is the establishment named La Davière on the Île de Ré, in the commune of La Couarde. It could be given several names: the "Stonecrop Campsite," given that the ground is heavily colonized by patches of biting stonecrop, or the "Rabbit Campsite"—I need not draw you a picture as to why one would call the site such a thing!
The La Davière campsite remains in a state of abandonment because of Storm Xynthia. I will not write a history of the storm itself, as it is well-documented elsewhere. Simply to place the campsite in context, I will mention that Xynthia was a storm that occurred between February 26 and March 1, 2010. While its winds were not exceptional, it coincided with a tide with a coefficient of 102. This conjunction led to a storm surge of 1.50 meters. Some dikes failed, and in other places, dunes were breached. This situation resulted in 59 deaths in France.
The damage was extremely significant on the mainland, on the other side of the Pertuis Breton, in the communes of La Tranche, L'Aiguillon, and La Faute. On the Île de Ré, the damage was considerable in the communes of La Couarde, Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, Les Portes, and La Flotte.
Just like the municipal campsite of La Faute (of which we provide a few photos at the end of the documentary), the La Davière site was totally inundated following the breach of the dikes during the night of February 27 to 28, 2010. The Isthme du Martray was completely flooded; the island was cut in two, as it was no longer possible to reach Loix from Ars. The campsite grounds were submerged in water up to 1.60 meters high.
Due to the traditionally high-end tourism on the Île de Ré (unlike Oléron), combined with the fact that this tourism mostly involves older visitors, campsites on Ré are traditionally not bare plots where one comes to pitch a tent. They are locations where many mobile homes are established. The site had a capacity for 48 mobile homes and 53 bungalow-tents. Consequently, the devastation was intense. The entirety of the facilities was left semi-crushed in a state of indescribable chaos. The mobile homes and caravans were inevitably destined for cranes and backhoes: everything was pulverized.
The absurdity of the internet is that thousands of sites still allow you to leave a review for this campsite, simply because it was once listed in the phone book.
Following the devastation, a certain number of establishments reopened. Those that were economically more fragile did not, though this remained somewhat sporadic. Others did not reopen due to judicial decisions; this is notably the case for La Davière.
The site, operated by VTF vacation villages, is located at an altitude estimated at minus 1.50 meters relative to the high-sea level. A number of sites were placed in "red" flood zones. A significant portion of the Isthme du Martray was placed in a "black zone," which is even worse. Despite the repair of the Boutillon dike and those of the Fiers d'Ars, the State does not consider the campsite to be in a secure sector. Reopening is impossible, resulting in a court ruling and an administrative closure ordered on April 21, 2011.
Among the 32 campsites in Charente-Maritime violently hit by the storm, 7 were subject to permanent closure. These were: "Les Chalets de la Plage," "La Plage," and "Le Clos Richelieu" in Aytré; "La Fumée" in Fouras; "La Davière" in La-Couarde-sur-Mer as mentioned; "Les Tamaris" in La Rochelle; and the municipal campsite of Chenac-Saint-Seurin-d'Uzet. As noted, this situation also applied to the Vendée region. It should also be noted that "La Lizotière" in Aytré did not reopen.
Since then, the site has been in a state of abandonment. It could hardly be otherwise, given that it is a largely isolated location. As for transforming it into a parking lot, it would likely not be a great success. The operator is forced to keep this "thorn in their side" that, in the end, no one wants. A colossal dike has been erected along the Martray on the southern bank. It ends there. The campsite is thus destined for a curious fate: to be colonized by terrible hords of rabbits.
Laughter no longer rings out across these holiday grounds. I invite you to wander below through a curious yellow atmosphere, within a soothing silence, broken only by the cheerful chirping of wrens and redstarts.
