Wildfires in south of France. Cancel my holiday?

[Blurcardionawayrdroe]

Posting for traffic.

We have a holiday booked in a campsite near to Perpignan and it has been evacuated due to the wildfires. My holiday is booked for the last August fortnight. We only just booked it so no travel insurance yet (but booked before the fires spread IYSWIM).

WWYD? It might be fine.

There is a reddit for the town so maybe ask there?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Perpignan/

I know someone from around that area on another forum and they said the fires in that area eased off after they caught and arrested the twats who started them deliberately. I've not heard news of any more since then.

As far as the Gironde goes - yes...

The Prefete (so basically the head of local government head) was on TV an hour or so agp and pretty much told holiday makers to not come to the Department until further notice.

https://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Environnement/incendie-en-gironde-pas-de-retour-devacues-pour-lheure-la-prefete-incite-les-touristes-a-ne-pas-venir-273253

Cancel. Wouldn't give it a second thought.

In a similar boat OP. Due to go south of Bordeaux in a couple of weeks to a place thats just been evacuated.

Primarily feel sad for the people and wildlife there - it's such a beautiful area its devastating to think of the damage. But also selfishly feel sad about our holiday! We have a week in another region and fly into a (currently) unaffected airport, so really not sure what our insurance will cover...

If it's not fire it'll be smoke which could be severe. You likely won't be able to travel around for safety. Attractions closed. Supplies limited. If evacuation becomes necessary you likely will be limited in where you can go to. You'll be extra bodies for officials to manage in an emergency.
Honestly, if you have never experienced close proximity to wildfire you cannot understand it. It really is best to avoid the entire region.
Canadian here. Have been subjected to suffocating wildfire smoke several summers. 😔

If OP was going to Bordeaux region I’d agree about not going but she’s going to other side of the country where according to googling news reports, etc there are no current fires. 🤷‍♀️

There are fires in the Cairngorms right now but I would happily go to Glasgow and not worry about the fire……..

You can search ‘wildfires’ on google maps and see all of them. Touch any to see the full area affected, road closures, acres burned etc. along with the time last updated. We’ve been at our house in the Var for the last week and watching one v closely but so far ok, about 30-40km away with the motorway in between which is a sort of natural fire break. Doesn’t look to be any fires in Perpignan OP, although a couple of small ones near the Spanish/Andorra border. I’d personally still go.

Thanks @Bitzee thats very helpful,

Feux de forêt website is very helpful

in a similar position but heading to a different part of France in August. That area currently looks ok.
i’d see what happens in next few days but France is bloody enormous and the vast majority is totally fine

You don't need to get insurance before you book a holiday but you do need to get it quickly eg within a day or two of booking.

The longer you leave it, the more chance there is that something will go wrong meaning you need to cancel, the OP first posted about this holiday 3 weeks ago so clearly this window has passed and an insurance company would be well within its rights to not cover cancellation due to wildfires for policies bought today for holidays starting in the next few days.

Can we stop talking about the bloody insurance please?

Sorry to mention the insurance but even if OP had bought insurance on the day and had canceled they wouldn't pay out because it would be disinclination to go if the holiday company doesn't cancel or FO give advice not to go. Insurance doesn't just pay out because you don't want to go because it might be smoky or not very nice. We had insurance for a holiday in covid time which we cancelled and it made no difference, we still lost our deposit, same as if we hadn't got insurance.

I would look at the cancellation amounts and if it is no different just before the holiday to now, I would leave it as long as possible before cancelling or see if you can move it to somewhere else.

The wildfires they had close to Perpignan have gone out now. The current fires are in the Gironde/ Bordeaux area which is over 450km away from Perpignan. I'm due to go to the Perpignan area in a few weeks and am still planning to go as it is very far away from us.

@Blurcardionawayrdroe how much would you lose if you cancelled?

I don't think you can make a judgement at this stage. Fires in the Aude and Pyrénées Orientales are certainly not not uncommon. Reading the local paper, the smoke from the Gironde is being experienced in Perpignan.

As someone who is in a very similar position to the poster even having insurance does not guarantee a payout. We were due to go to Arcachon and our insurance have said that because the FCDO have not said do not travel we will not get our money back as technically and terrifyingly we could still go there, even though there are fires either side!

Yes they were talking about this on the news this morning. Tricky… they were suggesting the right thing to do is to not go as you could be adding to the problem and putting yourself at risk, but as you say, insurance might not cover you.

I live in France a bit further away on the coast from Perpignan. I would probably still plan on going. We have a holiday booked in the Pyrenees next week and are planning to go.

FWIW the French media ATM seem to regard four fires as being noteworthy..

The areas/Departments concerned are the Gironde, Var, Haute-Alpes and one on Corsica...

As a pp said fires (smallish, contained quickly) are not that unusual across many of the French regions.

I read somewhere that there were some wildfires on the Spain/Andorra border but I can’t find the link now.

How far a drive from Perpignan to the Pyrenees is it? Could we take our camper van and go to one of the campsites there for a couple of days?

Perpignan to the Pyrenees is not far (well depending on which side of the Pyrenees you are going - Pyrenees Orientales are the closest). I would plan on going as expected and just keep an eye on the fires. The current fires are not something I would especially be worried about.

Perpignan is basically where the Pyrenees run into the Med at their eastern end, so not far at all.

TBH small fires in that part of the world aren't unusual, I'm not sure it's worth trying to plan around them too much but you've obviously got to keep an eye on things.

Bear in mind with it being peak holiday season campsites will be very full.