Le Figaro Nice
Canua Island, a private floating beach denounced as "an ecological aberration", was positioned Monday morning off Toulon, after leaving Sunday by sea its construction site in Italy, according to a site monitoring maritime traffic.
The ship had left Sunday evening at 18:43 the port of La Spezia and set sail for the France, according to the website Marine Traffic, which allows to follow live the maritime traffic around the world. Monday morning around 10:40, according to the same site, the ship was between the peninsula of Giens, off Hyères, and Toulon. Asked by AFP on Monday, a Canua Island official declined to comment.
At the beginning of May, the Canua communication agency had indicated that the ship should receive "in May in Italy the passage of the safety and compliance commission". The promoters of the project had indicated at the end of March that they planned to start activity "in May".
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Recruitment launched
A unique private floating beach in France, Canua Island is actually a platform of 1750 m2 placed on a motor trimaran. It should come to anchor off Mandelieu-la-Napoule, 600 meters from the coast. Canua, which promises a hundred jobs and has already begun to recruit, will be able to accommodate on board, against payment, up to 350 people, transported by shuttles. They have access to an on-site restaurant, a lounge bar and a freshwater swimming pool.
The project was imagined and developed by Marc Audineau, former world number 1 dinghy and former Olympic athlete, and by Fijian Tony Philp, former windsurfing world champion, who has already created a similar platform, "Cloud 9", in Fiji.
Supported by the town hall of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, the initiative is strongly contested by elected officials and by the Syllau association, which denounces the risks of damage to the environment. A petition initiated by this association has already collected more than 7000,<> signatures.
While the project is however partly financed by the Public Investment Bank (BPI), as part of a partnership with the South region, the Macronist president of the region, Renaud Muselier, said that "we must refuse this ecological aberration". The project "arouses a circumspection to which I subscribe", replied mid-March the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu.
