Mathieu Valbuena, co-owner of a destroyed campsite at the Dune du Pilat: "I could never have imagined this"

“It’s over…” Joined this Monday at the end of the afternoon after a first exchange earlier in the day, the former tricolor international midfielder (52 selections), co-owner of Pyla-Camping, is struck by the destruction of his establishment.

From Athens (Greece) – he has been playing at Olympiakos Piraeus since 2019 – Mathieu Valbuena, originally from Gironde, testifies to his attachment to this little corner of paradise.

The two fires in progress in Gironde, in La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras, have already ravaged nearly 15,000 ha of pines.

How do you feel about this extraordinary fire?

MATHIEU VALBUENA.

These are terrible images and it's very sad to see these hectares and hectares of forest go up in smoke.

This Monday day was dreaded with the heat and strong gusts of wind which did not help.

It's difficult in these conditions to stop the fires at La Teste and Landiras, but the main thing is obviously that everyone is safe.

The five campsites of the Dune du Pilat, including the Pyla-Camping of which you are co-owner, have been "90% destroyed", according to the prefect of Gironde...

It is a great sadness.

I have owned this business since 2013 with a partner.

It is located at the foot of the dune between the Yelloh Village Panorama du Pyla and the Flots Bleus (

).

I have a hard time realizing that there is nothing left today.

I never could have imagined it would go this far.

It is a classified site, which crosses borders with many French and foreigners who came to camp or simply see the Dune du Pilat.

It hurts…

Read also“We have canceled everything”: because of the fires in Gironde, many holidaymakers are turning back

What message would you like to send to the firefighters on site?

They have been fighting these fires 24 hours a day for almost a week and I would just like to highlight them and give them my utmost respect.

They are putting their lives in danger in the face of a fire that is constantly advancing and I wanted to thank them from the bottom of my heart and tell them that we are behind them.

They do everything to slow the flames and try to freeze the fire despite the very difficult weather conditions.

And after the fire...

It's a marvelous site and it's hard to watch these images of pine trees reduced to ashes.

It hurts the heart and it is difficult to see the future in pink.

The most important thing is to be able to control the flames, that the fire does not do too much additional damage even if the conditions are not favorable.

Few people imagined such a situation… Time will allow us to rebuild ourselves.

And we hope that the French will still come in great numbers because we have a very beautiful region.