After enjoying some success in 2020 and 2021 during the era of travel restrictions, Eure-et-Loir and Chartres should again have a card to play in this summer of 2022 where inflation may force some to be careful. . To make itself better known, the tourist office also multiplies the offers and events.
At the foot of Chartres Cathedral, the little sister of Notre-Dame de Paris, foreign tourists are very present. Paola, a Catholic from Argentina who criss-crosses the holy places of France, is moved by the beauty of the site which houses the veil of the Virgin.
“All the architectural part is very beautiful, it is a marvel not to be missed. It is a place of pilgrimage that we do not know, she wonders. One must come !“
If they do not show quite the same religious fervor, other tourists from the north of the American continent feel the weight of history like Richard, a Quebecer: “It’s different from what we have back home. Everything has a story.“Above all, he can visit this cathedral in a city”a man’s size, a size that [lui] fits better” than Paris, more eventful.
A sentiment shared by Taft from the United States. She is amazed to see “how easy it is to park, how few people there are and how quiet it is“, even though Chartres is close to the capital by car. And she is aware of the distances since she also visits Paris, Versailles and the Loire Valley.
The castles and animal parks of the region attract many visitors: approximately 1.4 million for the ZooParc de Beauval, more than 700,000 for Chambord, more than 800,000 for Chenonceau.
So difficult to compete for Chartres? Isabelle Mesnard, president of C’Chartres Tourisme, does not see things that way. With its million visitors every year, Notre-Dame de Chartres remains a locomotive. “The Gothic cathedral is still that of Chartres. So we start at home when we go to the Centre-Val de Loire region. We are the entrance to the center of France“, she analyzes.
An entrance close to the Paris region since Chartres is 90 km from the center of Pariswhich represents “an extraordinary chance“. “Not everyone understood that we were so close”she points out.
Parisians noticed this in the spring of 2020 when they left the first confinement, where they could then move within a radius of 100 kilometers. The Eure-et-Loir had then been taken by storm by the Ile-de-France residents who had notably rushed to the tourist lodges.
For this summer of 2022, will inflation encourage tourists to favor, for example, a week in Eure-et-Loir rather than on the Côte d’Azur? According to Carole Rossi, director of Eure-et-Loir Tourisme in the columns of the Echo Républicainthe department has indeed a card to play to attract families who wish to go less far because of the price of gasoline.
But from Isabelle Mesnard’s point of view, the goal is “not at all compete with the sea or the mountains“. “We are a 3-4 day destination“, she admits.
However, she would like to point out that Chartres is gradually attracting people over longer periods of time. “People stayed, before 2001, two hours. Today we have more than one night.She gives the example of camping: “People passing through, the Dutch, the Benelux stay two nights easily”.
Data confirmed on the hotel side by Chantal Maudhuit, honorary president of Umih 28 (union of trades in the hotel industry of Eure-et-Loir): “You also have a bed and breakfast quality of gîtes which are almost all full, people want to stay in Chartres for at least one night.“
According to the tourist office, the number of overnight stays since the beginning of this spring, until July, amounts to 111.000a number “excellent” for Isabelle Mesnard who thinks that the attendance records of 2019 will be exceeded this year.
To meet the different expectations of visitors, it was necessary to ensure that the other attractions did not remain in the shadow of the cathedral, but that they were more highlighted and brought to the fore. This is exactly what the tourist office does.who organizes a lot of things” according to Chantal Maudhuit. “We see a surge“.
Among the latest tools and events to encourage holidaymakers to take a break in the department, Veloscenia. It is a route of 450 km between Paris and Mont-Saint-Michel to do by bike, which has a whole series of stages including Maintenon, Chartres, Illiers-Combray and Nogent-le-Rotrou.
“This represents beautiful stopoversassures the president of C’Chartres Tourisme. It creates a dynamic in every village or town“, with the number of cyclists having exploded according to her.”The Covid has helped us save five years on the life of the bike both in the city and in tourism. Today, we go on a cycling holiday in small sections or a whole route over 10 days.“A circuit that recalls another parallel : the Loire by bike. In 2019 1.2 million cyclists have cycled on this cycle route.
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