Bordeaux holiday and wildfires

[Rockaroundthexmastree]

Hi,
Firstly, the situation in France is frankly horrific and I do not wish to downplay this by discussing a holiday which is trivial with regards to what the locals are facing.

However, we are due to go to france (driving) for a fortnight from 20th august with 3 kids. We are doing eurocamps and have 3 x sites booked - first at the Loire valley for 3 nights, then down to near Bordeaux for a week, then back to Loire valley at another for 4 nights. The campsite near Bordeaux was evacuated yesterday due to the wildfires.
4 weeks is a long time I know, but am obviously concerned. Would you rebook for another region of france and avoid Bordeaux completely? Was thinking of Vendee perhaps. Eurocamp have said we can change but will have to pay the difference as it stands at the moment. If nearer the time the campsite remains closed as it is, they will move us free of charge but would depend on availability otherwise a refund would be given. It will not reopen till 1st august at the earliest is the latest information.

I'd assume it won't reopen. If you want a better chance of getting an alternative site that suits your plans then move your booking now. If you're happy to be flexible then wait.

Of imagine most locals will
be fairly stressed and it wouldn’t be much fun seeing the destruction. Cancel and stay in Britain. Plenty of lovely spots here. We need the money in the uk.

I think I would rebook avoiding the area to be honest.

If you cancel you will take a hit. There is no major reason why the other sites will be affected - fires are a hazard of life, and obviously increasing with climate change, but we haven't quite got to "OMG a quarter of France will catch fire every year" yet.

Frankly, if the campsite near Bordeaux was evacuated, there's a good chance that it's no longer there, so the company will need to come up with an alternative anyway. They won't reopen if anything is burning nearby or if there is soot in the air, not least because the staff will have been evacuated too. At that point you can reasonably negotiate changes to the rest of your booking (for example, if the alternative to Bordeaux is Grenoble then you won't want to drive back to the Loire again).

There is an excellent French expression, "Il est urgent d'attendre", and I think this might well be such a case.

I’d rebook to somewhere further north, free of fires. We left Bordeaux today and the fire is still getting worse. If you don’t change it, you’ll just be worrying about whether the site will be ok, etc., which is not good prep for a holiday!

That’s a lot of driving regardless, so I’d have a rethink and look to regain 2 days of holiday rather than spending them in the car. Or depending on the DCs’ ages head over to Puy du Fou.

Thanks all. We decided it wasn’t worth the worry over the next few weeks and rebooked to the vendee area today. We had to pay the difference of few hundred but will save that back in the fuel saved not going all the way down south anyway.

Sounds like the best option OP 😊