2024 Exit – Setting sail for the 2025 season

Quick, quick, time is flying!

The new season is already upon us.

And it seems like every year the break between seasons gets shorter; is that normal? Probably, since it’s well known that the older we get, the faster time flies, right?

So, quickly, before I forget, how was our 2024 at the campsite?

It was a bit strange, though, this season, which, after a normal, even promising spring with a long Ascension Day weekend under a glorious sun, definitely didn’t want to get started. The weather in early July wasn’t great, but hey, July 2023 had prepared us for that, hadn’t it?

As for many tourism professionals in Brittany, business was slow to take off in July 2024. Was it the political context (which did give us some memorable evenings), the weather, which was a little too gloomy at times, or the Olympic Games, which disrupted the usual routine? No doubt it was a combination of all these factors and others specific to each individual, which remain a mystery.

So yes, we had to wait until the weekend of 20 July 2024 for things to really start moving at the campsite; it was a bit long… but then very quickly the turmoil of the season caught up with us, phew!

So a big thank you once again to our wonderful customers.

Thank you also to our friend Boubou who, once again in 2024, led the Billoland Olympics with talent, humour and good humour, accompanied by the wonderful energy of the joyful participants.
Thank you to the talented musicians, thank you to the attentive audience.
Thank you to the children who played with Saga, for those little moments of shared happiness!
Thank you for the new encounters, the new smiles of happy and kind people. This does not make us forget the humanitarian and ecological disasters that are spreading throughout our small world, but it gives us hope and energy to move forward.
Like the daily gifts that sustain and inspire us, such as sunsets over the sea or simply contemplating Saga, like an immutable figure, whom one might think insensitive, and yet !

So, 2025?

We thought long and hard before deciding to replace two mobile homes; replacing the old ones with new ones… a bit like making way for the younger generation. Ouch, another lease on our books. That’s how campsites grow.

Choosing mobile homes at the camping show is fun for us… but less fun was moving the two old ones (which had been stored on top of our boules set since November) and finding them a new home.

The second one left at the beginning of March. It was a little sad; when we arrived in July 2021, we had spent eight months in this little house before moving into a new, much more spacious chalet at the end of February 2022. And we had renovated these mobile homes with all our love!

It was the end of an era; for a few weeks/months, there was something missing at the campsite!

Of course, the red and yellow, our two old mobile homes, are still there, and we continue to renovate them a little each year. Currently, one of them is being painted! It’s almost as shiny as a new coin; it’s very pleasing to see !

So what about the brand new mobile homes?

They are spacious, bright, somewhat elegant, contemporary in style with attractive wood-effect cupboard fronts; a very attractive oval wooden table and white chairs; there is even a large beige curtain covering the entire wall in the master bedroom!

Progress cannot be stopped. Anyway, we like them and we hope that our customers will like them too, which is the main thing. Let’s hope they are filled with happiness for their first season and all those to come.

And what else?

Well, something very, very big! Finally, renovation work has begun on the central building (the former sanitary facilities of the Océan campsite).

We have been using this dilapidated building (yes, it’s completely rotten) for three seasons, doing our best to accommodate the snack bar, laundry, linen room/laundry room and two technical rooms. But we can’t take this damp building (it leaks!) and its unsuitability for its new functions any longer. How can I put it… imagine laundry stored in showers with makeshift shelves. Or a freezer stored in an outdoor shower. A snack bar between four planks and under corrugated iron; that’s pretty much it. Well, it was pretty much that.

Admittedly, seen from the outside, this arrangement didn’t seem to lack charm… but help!

So today we broke everything! Or almost everything. As soon as we got the building permit in early February (submitted six months earlier; another adventure).

It’s quite impressive; the roofless building has become a Swiss cheese.

It’s quite exciting, but we’re still a little freaked out because our opening date is approaching, and to say the least, it’s not finished, and we’re far from done… What state will the site be in at the beginning of April, the beginning of May, the beginning of June, and especially the beginning of July?

Apparently, the building (which we also plan to extend to create future accommodation for Paul and me) will be weatherproof by the end of June! OK, but what else? We’re well aware that installing the galley (the snack bar) is going to be a bit of a challenge, and I think the laundry storage will still be a makeshift, temporary solution. But we hope that the laundry room for customers (with brand new machines) will be just right!

This renovation/extension project has been on our minds since we started four years ago; at first, we imagined it could be completed for the second season… what, the third? No, we’ll have to wait until the fourth for… a first draft, let’s say. We can’t wait to see this new building take shape. The builders are magicians.

Thank you to the whole team of professionals who are helping us with this. It seems unusual to have all of the following in one building: a reception area with a grocery store, a snack bar with a kitchen, a public laundry room, a utility room, and accommodation upstairs.

In short, we’re dreaming of this renovated building. We’re also dreaming of spending next winter in the warmth of a stove.

In the meantime, spring is here. With it comes a season that smiles on us; it will go well with an unfinished building for a new touch of madness, won’t it?

It’s also booking season. That’s reassuring.

Thank you to our loyal customers. What a wonderful gift you give us. Some of you have been with us since we opened in 2022; I call you ‘our four-season regulars’! It’s inspiring…

And then again this year. The little voice: ‘Hello, I don’t know if you remember us? We used to come to the crêperie regularly on Friday evenings with our little girl Rose…’ ‘But what a pleasure, of course I remember! Welcome back to my lovely Grenoble customers. I didn’t dare imagine you would come from so far away… I’m so touched!’ You might think that a relationship between a shopkeeper and a customer is necessarily a little superficial; certainly, but I find it so sincere that it gives it an unexpected depth.

So yes, our relationships with our customers are worth their weight in gold. And we are rich because we have you.

Thanks to you, our energy remains intact and so sweet to share.

Let’s wish everyone a wonderful 2025 season.