Beach volleyball players on a Marseille beach -

CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

  • After the record attendance of Marseille beaches this summer, local authorities expect to see people on the coast during this third confinement.

  • Elected officials like the director of the Calanques park appeal to everyone's sense of responsibility to respect barrier gestures.

  • Eco guards and health mediators will be mobilized.

  • The prefecture of police announces reinforced controls.

“Yes the coast will be frequented, and the beaches will be too.

"Hervé Menchon, elected EELV in charge of the sea in the city of Marseille, does not expect anything else with the Easter weekend but especially the new confinement and its 10 km rule.

“Beaches and green spaces are places where human animals come to find a little well-being,” he says, without any mockery in his voice.

He still remembers the record figures of last summer in Marseille: "40% more frequentation on the beaches is enormous".

But he should not be counted on to “stigmatize seaside use and coastal walks”.

"I will not be the one who will order the closure of the beaches," he says, preferring to focus on the "responsibility of people" to respect the wearing of masks, social distancing and the rule of 6 people maximum.

"If there are groupings, it is a subject that concerns the police," he argues.

According to Sophie Camard, the mayor of the 1st and 7th arrondissements of Marseille, which has the Catalans beach and the Auffes valley in its sector, “teams of health workers” will be deployed.

100 mediators every weekend in April

In city council, Yannick Ohanessian, security assistant, announced the doubling of these social mediators for "every weekend in April".

"We are going to need to be omnipresent to raise awareness of barrier gestures, it is an action plan to meet the new health rules", explains the elected official.

Thus, 110 Covid prevention mediators will be responsible during this period "to appease, avoid conflicts, prevent crimes and advise those who are passing through us.

"They will be deployed around parks and gardens, the Prado seaside park, the Calanques, and equipped with stocks of masks for" massive distribution if necessary ".

Systematically verbalized offenses

“Obviously there will be people,” anticipates Sophie Camard.

But no question of adopting a martial tone: "We are not transforming each of us all into delinquents, we are in the responsibility and the surveillance so that it goes well and as well as possible.

"Side police headquarters, the message is clear after the failure of the carnival of the Plain:" Any offense will be systematically verbalized.

A strengthening of control operations is announced this Friday evening.

In the viewfinder: festive gatherings and gatherings on squares, beaches and quays.

In the Calanques National Park, 24 eco-guards will start their season this weekend in a very specific context.

"The constraint is strong, 10 km around the Calanques, it is already a very important population pool", advance François Bland, the director of the park.

And that's without counting the visitors who will come to spend their confinement in Marseille.

"We expect a very high attendance of the Calanques massif", he continues, before reassuring those who have a bad memory of the closure of the park at the first confinement: "Our natural spaces are open, the public needs to get into nature.

"

Hiking inside the massif rather than the beach

He also calls for the responsibility of everyone to "adopt the right actions", both to protect each other and to protect nature.

The big concern remains the congestion of traffic to access the site, the waste not collected and the overcrowding of certain creeks.

“Let's diversify our experiences, invites François Bland.

This means not to go systematically to the beaches but also to use the trails inside the massif.

»His advice for finding ideas for walks off the beaten track?

Go to the My Calanques application (free).

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  • Coronavirus

  • Marseilles

  • Covid 19

  • Society

  • Beach

  • Confinement