In Morey-Saint-Denis (Côte-d’Or), an “ephemeral village” appears as the harvest approaches. 60 seasonal workers will be able to sleep there at a lower cost. Meeting with the initiator of the project, Samuel Lenoir, who redeveloped the grounds of his equestrian center for the occasion.
It’s the same anxiety every year: how to find accommodation? As the harvest approaches in Burgundy, there are 40,000 seasonal workers looking for a solution. Winegrowers fear labor shortages and cannot always make their infrastructure available. “They struggle to accommodate because there are very strict regulationsrecalls the Confederation of Burgundy appellations and winegrowers. You need permanent housing, a certain number of square meters per picker, no bunk beds…“
Faced with demand, one man found the solution. Samuel Lenoir owns an equestrian estate of 150 hectares in Morey-Saint-Denis. A boon. To relieve neighboring wine growers, he created an “ephemeral village” on his land where some of the grape harvesters will live. A first in France.
Samuel Lenoir : the land that we make available is between 7 and 8 hectares. It can accommodate 50 to 60 people. There are areas dedicated to tents, vehicles and converted vans. In the middle of all this, we created a toilet block where we installed showers, sinks, toilets… everything necessary to live decently. We also have a marquee with a kitchen.
There is also a team of five people serving the harvesters. It’s nice to have responsive people who can provide them with comfort solutions. In fact, we recreated a temporary campsite.
S.L : Yes ! In the sector, there is less and less accommodation available for rental at reasonable rates. There is therefore this whole population of seasonal grape pickers who, arriving in the region without having accommodation, find themselves left to their own devices and set up makeshift camps. This helps to partially alleviate the issue of unsanitary conditions in wild camps.
S.L : And why not ? We like challenges! We are an equestrian center, but also breeders, we have lodgings… We know how to welcome people and then I think we were able to respond to expectations. For several years, I have often had wine growers who ask me to leave land for their grape pickers to come and camp.
Today, we are one of the rare establishments to have enough space in an area filled with vines. And then, ¾ of my clientele come from this environment. I found it interesting to create this link between viticulture and us. It’s a bit of give and take. In addition, it is a public interest project, there is this social side which is interesting.
S.L : It is initially a private project, which has become of public utility. The prefecture and the CAVB [Confédération des appellations et des vignerons de Bourgogne, ndlr] thought about it for a long time. So the State acted as guarantor. It takes care of 80% of the organization, the communities the remaining 20%.
The grape pickers pay 8 euros per night, so that it is affordable for everyone. The idea is to achieve, within 2 or 3 years, a financial balance so that it does not cost public money.
In any case, the project will be renewed with us next year. We are meeting the needs of certain areas, but that is not enough, the demand is much higher than that.
The village will be open from September 11 to 25.
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