The Center Parcs du Lot-et-Garonne site, which is due to be completed in 2022. -

Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

  • A stone's throw from Casteljaloux (Lot-et-Garonne), some 180 people are working on the project for the seventh French Center Parcs.

  • The project and its 401 wooden frame cottages, should stick to the desires of nature and proximity, which have resurfaced since the Covid-19 crisis.

  • During the summer of 2020, the Pierre et Vacances-Center Parcs group already recorded the arrival of a new clientele in its nature parks.

The site is running at full speed.

A stone's throw from Casteljaloux (Lot-et-Garonne), and on the edge of the Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park (PNR), some 180 people, three cranes and several machines, are working on the project for the seventh French Center Parcs (Pierre et Vacances group).

Work on the Center Parcs des Landes de Gascogne is due to be completed at the end of 2021, with the site opening scheduled for spring 2022 - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

Launched in June 2020, the work must be completed at the end of the year, to allow a whole phase of equipment testing to be carried out in early 2022, before the opening to the public scheduled for spring 2022.

"Tourism and outdoor recreation will be even more accentuated"

"Benefiting from an oceanic climate", "in the heart of an 85 ha pine forest", "sports and leisure activities", "medium-sized park" ... The presentation brochure praising the assets of the project, gives the impression of having been written in response to new public expectations, since the Covid-19 crisis.

However, it dates from 2019. As presented, the project and its 401 wooden frame cottages, which can accommodate between two and 12 people, should in all perfectly match the desires of nature and proximity, which have resurfaced since the start of the epidemic. .

The 401 cottages at Center Parcs des Landes de Gascogne are built in wood - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

“Customer expectations will change,” confirms Bruno Guth, in charge of operating the six French center parks, and director of the Landes de Gascogne park.

Tourism and outdoor recreation will be even more accentuated.

We also feel a need to reconnect people together.

Families were forced to stay locked in their homes, to play board games, for a year.

There is suddenly a pleasure for parents and children, and grandparents too, to meet around a common hobby.

The real change will come from this reconnection, the need to come together around simple things with local identity.

"

“We had a lot of new tourists” in 2020

Bruno Guth has already seen these developments.

“We had a great summer last year, as soon as we reopened our sites after the first period of confinement.

Particularly thanks to the domestic customers.

And we had a lot of new tourists, who didn't know the group.

Today there is a need for customers to find different vacations, in spacious places, 1.5 hours from home… ”

Bruno Guth, in charge of operating the six French center Parcs, and director of the Landes de Gascogne park - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

The Center Parcs des Landes de Gascogne will integrate the fundamentals found in other parks: accommodation, nature, swimming pools… "But on this project, biodiversity and activities linked to the outdoors will be even more emphasized" assures Bruno Guth.

The Covid-19 crisis will only further strengthen this strategy.

“The epidemic forced us to think about new outdoor activities, with the idea of ​​getting people out of buildings.

As with our Bois aux Daims site in Vienne, which we reopened about ten days ago, we are going to offer an entertainment program much more focused on small groups of people, outdoors, and with sensitivity. to biodiversity or to activities such as yoga, stretching, fitness, which we were not used to doing before.

"

A target of “450,000 to 500,000 overnight stays” per year

The Landes de Gascogne project will also include a swimming pool with a giant slide (Aqua Mundo), leisure and catering areas, and will offer activities for children.

The equipment is made of wood and concrete framework.

“For the heating part, explains Geoffrey Baudusseau, program director of the equipment part, a biomass boiler will supply the Aqua Mundo, relying on the local wood industry, the village center will operate with central air treatment systems. , like heat pumps, and the cottages will be equipped with gas.

"

The seventh Center Parcs, which will be open all year round, targets “450,000 to 500,000 overnight stays” per year.

He hopes to reach a clientele ranging from Pau, Biarritz, to Toulouse or even Montpellier, and via Bordeaux.

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