The health crisis and, above all, the long confinement of 2020 had given rise to irrepressible desires for the great outdoors and “Robinsonesque” stays in a tent in the woods or in a cabin by the sea. Four years later, campsites are still riding this wave with attendance at its highest (3.5 million overnight stays in summer 2023, or +6% over one year, according to INSEE). A craze driven in part by a public in favor of a type of campsite different from that of the canvas villages with Ricard aperitifs and noisy entertainment around the swimming pool, including the glamping (contraction of “glamor” and “camping”), a trend launched in the 2000s offering stays in luxuriously appointed tepees or Airstream caravans.
Eager to revisit the genre without distorting it, Adrien Gloaguen, founder of the Touriste group, at the head of seven Parisian hotels designed by prominent architects, embarked on the creation of Campings Liberté. The first will open this summer on the Côte de Granit rose, in Brittany. A second will be inaugurated parallel to the edge of Lake Lacanau (photo above), in the Landes. These are campsites “normal”, assures the entrepreneur, with good value for money, pretty decoration and attractive catering. “We imagine food trucks that will supply themselves with sourced products,” specifies the hotelier. Of course, there will also be a mini market for basic necessities. “To limit waste, we would like to suggest that campers leave their uneaten food products for new arrivals. »
Same desire for renewal on the side of the French Federation of Campers, Caravanners and Motorhome Owners, which has two sites, one on the banks of Lake Annecy and the other in La Grande-Motte. “Our campsites are natural, with few mobile homes”, explains the general director, Fabienne Yobé. Instead of complexes with fanfare entertainment and oversized swimming pools, the Federation now favors stargazing or bird watching. For those who dream of camping alone, vacations in a van or with a roof tent on the car are also the perfect option to combine tranquility and freedom.
campingsliberte.com and ffcc.fr/la-federation/nos-deux-campings
Read also: the summer series “Little Mythology of Camping” in six episodes.