At the Barcarès Christmas Village, we are actively preparing for the opening of the area ravaged by the flames. Restaurateurs will be able to take over the premises from this Friday, November 29.
Wednesday November 27, 2024, late morning at the Barcarès Christmas Village. While the paths of the site are slowly waking up, things are happening in the area affected by the fire that occurred on November 11. As a reminder, seven wooden chalets, three shipping containers and four refrigerated trucks were destroyed by the flames. The intervention mobilized 61 firefighters from the Pyrénées-Orientales. The Village’s inauguration date even had to be postponed by a week.
Saturday November 23, it was without this part that the most famous Christmas village in the South of France officially raised its curtain. On site, nothing suggested to visitors that, on the other side of the fences, work had been underway for several days (the disaster area having been obscured by privacy screens). This Wednesday, dozens of men were still working to respect the schedule announced by the municipality of Barcarès. “This part will open on Friday, November 29 in the evening. The restaurateurs initially planned in these places before the fire will be able to use the new installations from Friday evening, the day when the first fireworks in the Village will be fired,” Michel Sitja, general director of municipal services, declared this Wednesday morning.
Also read:
Fire at the Barcarès Christmas Village: “The worst option would be that we would not be able to operate our restaurant”
Chalets from abroad
To succeed in this undertaking in such a short time, large wooden structures have arrived from abroad in recent days. One, from Manchester in England and the other, from Cologne in Germany. The rest of the installations will be made of converted maritime containers and PVC marquees.
In any case, we will be able to work this winter
A new configuration which somewhat reassures Mickaël Casas, the co-manager of the restaurant Les Épiciers in Perpignan. For the end of the year, the establishment has been relocating its activity to the Christmas Village for three years. On November 11, the restaurateur saw his chalet burned to the ground. To reduce the shortfall, while waiting for the disaster area to reopen, Mickaël Casas was able to install a smaller chalet on the main square of the Village: “It saves us a little. Here, we have around a hundred seats. But initially, before the fire, we were supposed to have 350. I don’t yet know exactly what space will be allocated to me once the work is finished, is under discussion. In any case, we will be able to work this winter and that is good news.”
Belgium
