Tourist accommodation is prohibited from receiving the public in all the municipalities of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine coast, from Charente-Martime to Pyrénées-Atlantiques, after prefectural decisions coinciding with the start of the spring school holidays for part of France .
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Second most tourist department
The prefectures of Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques each issued a decree on Friday and Saturday to this effect, valid until April 15. "Considering that Charente-Maritime is the second most tourist department in France, the prefect took (Saturday) the decision to prohibit the rental, for tourist purposes, of hotel rooms as well as furnished accommodation for tourism or any other accommodation for seasonal rental ”in all the coastal municipalities of the department, said the prefecture in a press release.
It is a question of "coping with possible displacements of people towards tourist places during the spring holidays", explains the prefecture of Gironde.
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According to that of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, "the massive influx of people would encourage contagion and could lead to strong tensions on the health establishments already mobilized, in particular on the resuscitation services".
The Landes prefecture has even extended its ban to the municipalities bordering the coastal municipalities.
143 municipalities concerned
These measures affect a total of 143 municipalities, according to the accounts of the prefectures: 75 in Charente-Maritime, including the very touristy islands of Ré and Oléron, 20 in Gironde, especially those of the Arcachon basin, 39 in the Landes, such as Hossegor and Capbreton, and 9 on the Basque coast, including the very chic Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
The ban "does not concern accommodation for the regular domicile of the people who live there, emergency accommodation or accommodation for professional needs", specify the four prefectures.
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Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had urged on Thursday the French concerned by the start of the school holidays, ie zone C (Ile-de-France and Occitanie), not to leave and had asked the prefects to check the level of rentals seasonal in tourist areas.
