• Created by a winegrower family hit hard by the wine crisis, the Massereau campsite, based in Sommières in the Gard, immediately took the side of development that respects the environment.

  • The campsite has just obtained a very prestigious award from the Adac for its efforts in terms of sustainable development and environmental awareness;

    among more than 5,000 applicants.

  • Among the many gestures for the preservation of the environment, the creation of a photovoltaic farm of 1,000 m2, which allows the campsite to be self-sufficient in energy, finally convinced the jury.

In his luggage, Gilles Rigole returned from Germany with two particularly cumbersome trophies.

A character of 50 centimeters and six kilos, from a well-known German brand with a bowl cut.

And a star-shaped trophy, which makes him proud.

On January 13, in Stuttgart, the director of the Massereau campsite won the Adac (General German Automobile Club) Award in the Sustainable Development and Environmental Awareness category.

Sacred reward.

They were more than 5,000 European establishments on the starting line to try to win one of the seven prizes awarded by this institution born in 1903, which claims 21 million members through its multiple activities.

The Sommières campsite, in the Gard, is the only elected one in France.



Domaine Massebeau is the story of constrained and successful diversification.

In the mid-2000s, the wine world was in crisis.

In June 2008, in Montpellier;

7,000 winegrowers take to the streets to scream their despair.

"Farms are in decline, incomes are sometimes down by 40 to 50%... whole sections of the economy of the departments of Languedoc Roussillon are hit hard, while human tragedies are in the process of being tied", alert then in a question to the Government, the socialist senator of Aude, Roland Courteau.

The original objective was to “save the wine estate, while respecting the land”

“We made this choice to create the camping activity to save the family vineyard that we continue to operate in parallel.

It was a question of survival at the time,” underlines Gilles Rigole.

But no question of doing anything.

“We wanted a high-end, eco-friendly campsite where people wouldn't be crowded on top of each other.

We are people of the land, we respect it”.

In 2010, the independent campsite became the first in France to obtain the fifth star awarded by Adac.

And in 2017, it obtained the 5-star Adac Superplatz classification.

Basically, what is best in the field of outdoor accommodation.


From card readers allowing the use of air conditioners or heating to be regulated, to drip irrigation supplied by untreated agricultural water, to water savers on all the taps: the managers of the campsite have tried to put the preservation of the environment at the heart of their project.

But the great innovation that allowed them to win the Award is this 1,000 m2 photovoltaic farm.

“It allows us to be the first campsite in Europe that is self-sufficient in electrical energy,” explains Gilles Rigole.

From now on, the character brought back from Stuttgart will welcome customers to the campsite.

And the Award will be hung on one of the facades of the campsite.

Just to remind you that in this campsite like no other, ecology "remains a priority"


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  • Environment

  • Planet

  • Montpellier

  • Occitania

  • Languedoc Roussillon

  • Nimes

  • Tourism

  • Camping

  • Reward