2023-05-21 17:49:41
On Friday, Mont Saint-Michel warned tourists of a busy Ascension weekend, inviting them to… turn on their heels. SAMEER AL-DOUMY
This long weekend, the ZooParc de Beauval and Mont Saint-Michel saw the arrival of many curious people. Enough to generate impressive queues.
Leave the hustle, bustle and crowds of urban areas to recharge your batteries during a long weekend, and finally find yourself… In the hustle, bustle and crowds? This is the unpleasant experience of visitors to certain tourist places in recent days. While many families hit the road to enjoy the Ascension Bridge, institutions found themselves overwhelmed by the influx of visitors, even leading two major sites to suggest that they not come.
On social networks, the case of the ZooParc de Beauval has been mentioned by many Internet users. Sharing photos of their experience there on Friday, they complained of endless queues to hope to see the animals, including the famous pandas of this emblematic place in Loir-et-Cher. “We paid a fortune with my little family to live one of the worst weekends of our lives“, thus despaired a visitor, on Twitter, when another evoked “a day that turns into a test of patience, especially with two little ones in the strollers».
Faced with criticism, the ZooParc defended itself on social networks. “Many of you want to visit the ZooParc de Beauval. For your comfort of visit, we strongly advise you to postpone it to a later date.“, he wrote on Friday. And to add:Like other major French tourist sites, the ZooParc de Beauval is a great success for long weekends including public holidays. This year again, we encountered a large influx, especially this Friday, May 19, 2023“. Saying to have broadcast “messages” on its site warning visitors of the situation and inviting them to postpone their visit, the management also considered that, “whatever the attendance, we cannot afford to refuse access to visitors who sometimes travel very many kilometers to come to the ZooParc».
The director of the zoo, Rodolphe Delord, also explained to our colleagues from France 3 that the situation should improve on Saturday, Ascension Friday being “record day of the year“. Not enough to appease some tourists, however, who blame the park for having sold too many tickets on the internet.
Mont Saint-Michel invites tourists to “delay [leur] venue»
Another place, same problem: a few hundred kilometers further north, in Giverny, the Ascension weekend also prompted thousands of tourists to come and visit the small village, as well as the famous residence of Claude Monet. The magnificent gardens of the impressionist painter saw many curious people pass by, even saturating the car parks. “We are happy to have tourists, but we have many, many, far too many there“, reacted, in a report by TF1, the mayor of the city, Claude Landais, underlining “the ransom of glory».
Rebelote 300 kilometers further west: on the Normandy coast, one of the tricolor jewels has also found itself a victim of its success in recent days. On Friday, Mont Saint-Michel warned tourists of a busy Ascension weekend, inviting them to… turn on their heels. “Due to the very high attendance this day and during this weekend of the ascent, we advise you to delay your visit to Mont Saint-Michel“Wrote the public establishment managing the place, on its Facebook page. His publication was also accompanied by photos showing impressive groups of visitors queuing.
Again, tourists expressed their dissatisfaction on social networks. “1 hour in line to be told that it’s packed, that there are too many people, except to pay for parking“was annoyed one of them. “Real scam. We let people enter the car parks except that everything is shielded“added another. The public establishment, however, responded to criticism, recalling that “Mont Saint-Michel is not an amusement park that we close but a town with its own specificity“. Besides, “the high attendance on such a site is announced and predictable on a weekend like Ascension“, he said.
These places are far from being the only ones having had to deal with large flows of visitors. Cabourg, Côte d’Azur, Arcachon, Normandy, Corrèze… The local press echoes a busy weekend in many areas. A real challenge for authorities and locals alike, but also a great opportunity for traders in the sector.
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