The lifelong owner of a Volkswagen combi (a name he pronounces impeccably, like a good old German teacher), Jean-Marc Ayrault, one of the rare politicians to appreciate the open-air hotel business, remembers being made fun of for his taste for motorhome holidays. “I find the elitist side that ironizes and looks at the campsite from above” saddeningcriticizes the former prime minister of the quinquennium Holland.
For a long time, this popular practice did not have a good image, which no longer seems to be the case. Campsite attendance has exploded in France, rising from 112 million overnight stays in 2011 to 136 million in 2022. Twenty-five million people spent the night in a French campsite in 2022, with nationals accounting for two-thirds of overnight stays. While the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to the success of outdoor holidays with all segments of the population, many of those who camp seem – oddly – to be afraid of being mistaken for people who go camping.
Florence, a doctor’s wife, in her sixties, explains that yes, she goes camping, but “just to sleep”. “I’m really not typical of the people who go there. We never made friends at the campsite. We choose places without animation or swimming pool, we have never had a flip-flop party. »
With bedding and electricity
For others, it is precisely this free society that is the essence of camping. Son of a teacher who took him there for a month each year, Olivier Lassenaud takes holidays with good families from a height. “Those who went to their homes every year with the same cousins, waiting until the end of lunch to leave the table, that was hell. When you are a child, camping is the freedom to be able to move where you want, remembers the one who is now the director of Camping Paradis. And when you’re adults, it’s the only place where, when you don’t see your children, you don’t wonder where they are. »
Real camping must stir childhood memories, “Like seeing the Tour de France caravan pass by and listening to the popsicle song by Michel Jonasz”is moved Fabien Onteniente, the director and producer of the film Camping. But, if it is part of the promise, the postcard is not everything. “There are still so many working classes who go camping, but now they want a swimming pool, water slide, bungalow and entertainment. What pleases some people horrifies others and vice versa. notes Nicolas Dayot, president of the National Federation of Outdoor Hotels.
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