It’s a first. Reservations to access, on Sunday, two coves in Marseille, opened on Thursday June 23 on the site of the Calanques National Park, which this summer limits the frequentation of these fragile Mediterranean natural spaces.
“The creek of Sugiton and Fallen Stones is the victim of a very marked phenomenon of soil erosion due to overcrowding. This phenomenon threatens the landscapes we love so much and biodiversity”indicates the Calanques National Park on its website.
Pour “protect the cove”access to the tiny beaches of Sugiton and Fallen Stones as well as their immediate surroundings will therefore be limited to 400 visitors per day, compared to 2,500 usually in the heart of summer, on Sundays June 26 and July 3 and then every days from July 10 to August 21.
Reservations, free and limited to five people per file, can be made from three days before the desired date and until 6 p.m. the day before, on the Calanques National Park website or application. Children under 3 years old do not need a reservation. They are impossible on site and on the same day.
Fine of 68 euros
Since mid-May, the Park has been engaged in a vast communication campaign, by way of posters but also on social networks, to inform the public of these new booking methods, a first in a French national park.
Agents will be present throughout the summer along the access path to the calanque, which winds through the scrubland, to inform visitors of the need to have a visitor’s permit before they reach the QR code checkpoints.
The reservation system, tested for the first time this summer by the Calanques National Park, may change. “We want to believe that a large part of the public is sensitive to the fact that we want to preserve the environment”one of the park officials had confided in mid-May.
The objective is to “limit the erosion of the pine forest, protect the soil and maintain the capacity for renewal of this landscape mythical “, he added. And thus avoid “an irreversible process”while “renaturation can take several centuries”. In case of control in the area subject to reservation, people who do not have a ticket will be fined 68 euros.