After the violent fire, the Barcarès Christmas village opens its doors this Saturday, November 23

Victim of a fire which completely destroyed seven chalets on November 11, the Christmas village finally opened its doors on Saturday November 23. Several thousand visitors expected.

No more trace of the fire. Like the phoenix rising from its ashes, the Barcarès Christmas village is ready to welcome the public. The opening is for Saturday November 23. A feat considering the significant damage caused by the fire on November 11.

It took the teams barely 12 days to clear the seven burned chalets and erase all traces of the damage. A real race against time which began the day after the fire, thanks to a general mobilization of the city's technical services. A feat praised by Michel Sitja, General Director of Barcarès Services “They worked practically day and night. For two and a half months everyone has been mobilizing for the Christmas Village so when there was this disaster, everyone, even if they were tired, found energy to be able to draw deep down to finalize what was finished and had to be redone. I am proud of my teams.”

Concerning the fire, an in-depth investigation was carried out by the Gendarmerie and the accidental trail was, from the first elements collected, favored. This is confirmed by Michel Sitja, DGS of Barcarès. “Do you imagine that the Prosecutor and the Gendarmerie would accept that we remove the chalets following a major fire three days later? Obviously not. So that means that they had confirmation through their investigations, that they carried out with great diligence, that it was accidental.”

This is the final stretch of preparations. Everything must be perfect for the opening this Saturday and Martine Gisolo, President of the Barcarès Tourist Office Committee, is taking care of everything. Every detail counts, so Martine comes and goes from one end of the Village to the other.

This is expanding by another hectare this year, bringing the surface area of ​​this Village to seven hectares, which has several surprises in store, as Martine tells us: “the magic will be there as it has been each of these 25 years, but the 25th year obliges, accident obliges, this Village must be even more magical than usual. So, a bit like a cake birthday which would include more candles, this year we focused on the lights. There are really a lot of them. All the illuminated trees, the decorations, the bubble forest is extraordinarily lit up. , we will realize that it sparkles everywhere.”

Penguins, bears and eskimos will welcome, from their immense ice floe, visitors who will also be able to discover a huge Santa Claus rocket a little further away.

A virtual space, the big novelty of the season, with virtual sleds, a bobsleigh track, a ski slope and “a gigantic rocket where six people can ride and in which Santa Claus speaks to you”. An attraction that should particularly appeal to young geeks.

Martine Gisolo continues to roll out the new products with “a magical forest, installed behind the Lydia, and mushroom houses and a fifteen meter high tree which tells the story of the Barcarès Christmas Village. It's magical.”

A puppet show and a musical will be performed in the Cocteau-Marais cultural space. The exhibitions inside the Lydia have also been renewed. In the boat, in the bubbles, in the chalets, four hundred automatons will come to life and sing to bring the magic of Christmas to life and make the eyes of young and old children shine.