Deserted for two months, from Saturday, hundreds of beaches will reconnect with walkers. Since the beginning of deconfinement, five days ago, the prefectures have been announcing the names of the beaches authorized to receive the public again. But this Friday, the trend is accelerating: hundreds of places are mentioned in several prefectural decrees of coastal departments, most of which should reopen Saturday, for this first weekend unconfined. Conditions are numerous, however, and differ between municipalities.
Thus, in the Southwest, a hundred beaches of the Landes and Charente-Maritime (22 municipalities), including those of the Ile de Ré, will be able to reopen on Saturday, with a green light also for boaters with the reopening marinas in the municipalities concerned. In Charente-Maritime, these authorizations are made "in strict compliance with physical distance measures and other health regulations", specifies the prefect. In La Rochelle, "sunbathing" and picnics, alcohol consumption, "ball games" and gatherings of more than 10 people will be prohibited on the beaches, accessible between 7 am and 8 pm, detailed the town hall.
In the neighboring department of Landes, the prefect authorized the reopening of "64 oceanic or lacustrine sites in 25 municipalities", including Biscarrosse and Capbreton, high places of surfing. On these beaches, lakes, and bodies of water, most often accessible from 9 am to 7 pm, "only the practice of dynamic individual sports activities, land and water, is possible," said the statement from the prefecture. The exemption is valid until June 2.
A "dynamic" practice in Hérault or Aude
In Nice, Cannes, Palavas-les-Flots or Argelès-sur-Mer, for example, the beaches will be reserved for a "dynamic" practice, that is to say swimming and walking. The only authorized "sitting or lying static presence" will be for recreational fishing, said the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
In the Aude, sand lovers can enjoy it from 6 am, on sixteen beaches, in Gruissan, Leucate or Port-la-Nouvelle in particular. The use must be exclusively "dynamic", insisted the prefecture: picnic, alcohol consumption and "all festive practices" will be prohibited. An hour later, it will be Hérault's turn to open part of its coastline, in Agde, on the Lido beach in Sète, or even in Palavas-les-Flots.
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Some areas will remain closed, however, at the request of mayors. In Sète, it will be impossible to go to the beach of Lazaret, dear to Brassens. The prefect also wished to "keep a little bit of ecological cocoon" on Aresquiers beach, to preserve the nestlings of birds.
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Here too, these first open Hérault beaches will be exclusively reserved for “dynamic” or “Australian” use, said the prefect, Jacques Witkowski. "We can bathe, we can walk, we can run, but we do not sit down for a picnic and we do not deploy square meters of towel or mat".
Not before Thursday for the beaches of Bouches-du-Rhône
The seaside resort of La Grande-Motte in the same department will test a "static beach", a national first, from May 21, Thursday of Ascension, an experience that could foreshadow what will happen all the summer on the Mediterranean facade. At Barcarès it will even be forbidden to smoke. In the Alpes-Maritimes, where 12 out of 16 municipalities along the coast had asked to reopen their beaches, including Nice, Cannes or Menton, any static activity will also be prohibited. If walking or walking will be allowed, jogging will be prohibited.
The prefecture of Gard also announced this Friday the reopening of certain beaches in Grau-du-Roi, but for Thursday, May 21. Static activities and the practice of collective sports and games will also be prohibited. For the Bouches-du-Rhône, no beach will reopen on Saturday. "There will be beach openings only from Thursday of the Ascension," said the prefect Pierre Dartout, noting that in Marseille the 21 beaches of the city would not be accessible before early June.
The beaches of Brittany, North and Pas-de-Calais are waking up
This movement to reopen the beaches had started on Wednesday in Finistère, before the extension on Thursday to the main sites on the Atlantic coast and in the north of Brittany. The prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine also authorized access to 31 beaches in five municipalities (Dinard, Saint-Malo, Saint-Lunaire, Cancale and Pleurtuit). In Vendée, other authorizations are expected in 15 municipalities including Noirmoutier and Saint-Jean-de-Monts, while in Côtes-d'Armor, the prefect "welcomed the proposals of 27 mayors and authorized access to 111 tracks ”.
The beaches of Pas-de-Calais, including those of Touquet, Berck, Portel, Wimereux or Wissant, important tourist sites in the department have also been reopened to the public from this Friday. Access to the beaches will be authorized "during the periods when surveillance can be implemented" and "at most between 8 am and 9 pm," said prefect Fabien Sudry in a press release. Walks, individual sports and nautical activities will be authorized, but "any static presence, sitting or lying down" will be prohibited. Picnics, parties or even access to beach huts will be prohibited.
Dunkirk, Gravelines or Zuydcoote: the northern beaches will also reopen on Saturday for walks, swimming and individual sports, but groupings of ten people and prolonged or "static" presence will remain prohibited, decided the prefect Michel Lalande. Yes also to "movements of maritime pleasure vessels from the ports of Dunkirk and Gravelines" and take-out shops may reopen provided they do not sell alcohol. On the Dunkirk embankment, walkers will be separated into two traffic directions with markings on the ground.
Municipal police on the Basque coast
In the Basque Country, the mayors of Anglet, Biarritz, Bidart, Guethary, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Ciboure and Hendaye have agreed on a concept of "dynamic beaches", on which the inhabitants can walk or run , go surfing or swimming. Boaters living within 100 km will also be able to pick up their boats at the ports. To ensure compliance with health rules, municipal police, but also "beach ambassadors" will circulate on Saturday morning. The gendarmerie will fly over all the beaches each week to take pictures and monitor "the way the beach is occupied," added the prefect.
Access also to 135 km of beaches on the Atlantic in Gironde, not counting the 25 km of the Arcachon basin, announced the prefect Fabienne Buccio. Opening from 6 am for joggers, and because the waves are better for surfers. Closing at 7 p.m. to avoid festive gatherings, which "would cause us to take reverse action," she warned.
"The police and the gendarmerie will be there to support the mayors," to enforce the rules and traffic on the beach, said Fabienne Buccio, who is also from the New Aquitaine region. "We trust, we are more in pedagogy, but if there are flagrant cases, they will be verbalized: 135 euros". The Pilat dune, the highest dune in Europe and one of the first tourist sites in Aquitaine, will have to wait a little longer, probably a week, before finding visitors, because it still needs to be developed on access, path.
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