This Monday morning, travelers arrive at the Ile d’Yeu ferry terminal. – D.P. / 20 minutes
- Since Monday morning, those who live less than 100 km from the Isle of Yeu can now go by boat to the Vendée island.
- Ile d’Yeu was one of the last places in France still confined.
- Traders are eagerly awaiting the return of tourists to revive a stalled economy, although there is some apprehension that the virus is also landing on the island.
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From our special envoy to Ile d’Yeu (Vendée)
They are no longer the “confined irreducibles”. Since this Monday morning, the Ogiens (inhabitants ofIle d’Yeu in
Vendée) have seen new heads land. Faces that were unknown or that they hadn’t seen for several months. Sea links have resumed and all people living within a 100 km radius have been able to reach the “pebble” as we call the Vendée island. Before Monday, only residents with a main residence were allowed to go back and forth between their island and the mainland.
# COVID19 Access to the Isle of Yeu – From this day on, access to the Isle of Yeu is authorized to anyone, whose main residence is located less than 100 kilometers from the island. Find the prefectural decree on https://t.co/UVMevsCdDZ pic.twitter.com/Iaydr2QrAr
– Prefect of Vendée (@PrefetVendee) May 25, 2020
“It’s the journalists’ parade this morning and it’s good to see people again,” smiles this sailor, just before the departure of Company boat fromentine
Continent. One hundred and sixty people (masked) for a capacity of just over 400 seats took place in the one at 9:15 a.m. They were sixty three hours before. Until the end of August, the capacity of the boats will be halved.
On arrival at the Isle of Yeu, the sun irradiating the harbor master’s office Port-Joinville didn’t make her happier than that Agathe, a Nantes girl in a hurry to go to her second home. “We are finally here and not a check on the horizon. They’ve been pissing us off for two weeks! She belched on the phone. Like her, other people have struggled with the impossibility of gaining their second home. A retiree from Nantes had sued a few days ago the decree of the prefect of Vendée which reserved only access to the island to its only permanent residents. She had been dismissed. “We are afraid of being unwelcome, yes, because we are not people from here!”, Do not take offense at Agathe. All because our grandmother is not buried there? I have been coming here for thirty years. “
The economy of the suffering island
Agathe is one of 3,600 people who own a second home on the island compared to 2,300 main residences. Agathe’s anger contrasts with the Olympian calm of two Nantes residents waiting for their “taxi” which will take them to their second home. “We were waiting for the reopening, we just had to be patient …”, says the mother. Her daughter’s fingers are crossed so that her job as a waitress in an island bar will still be effective in a few weeks. And that is not certain because the local economy of this municipality of 5,000 inhabitants has wavered since the beginning of the confinement. “People are afraid of this reopening on the outside, but it is nevertheless necessary economically for the island, observes Bruno Noury, the mayor of Iceland. It is even vital. We are really worried about seasonal jobs and the sustainability of our businesses. “
You just have to walk around the port and call the traders to feel their concern. “I have 4,000 euros in rent and 1,500 euros in electricity charges and I haven’t taken a salary for two months, observes Benjamin, the boss of La Mie Câline. Normally, there are eight of us working, there are only two of us left. The reopening of the island is necessary. The ones who don’t want that are the ones who aren’t working and who are at the beach right now… ”
Thomas, son of the owner of Bi-clown, a bicycle rental store, only reopened this morning. He lists: “40,000 euros in loss in April, at least 120,000 in May with the various bridges. We haven’t done anything for two months! The island lives with tourism, it is the first economic activity before fishing. “We have to save the season in three months now,” says Olivier, an Icelandic fisherman for almost 35 years.
Insufficient hospital structures
A few meters away, Virginie, a fruit and vegetable seller, handles her landing nets with great dexterity … to serve her customers. Like a large majority of Icelanders, she says she is “divided” over the reopening of the island. “There is business and there we need tourists, but I’m also afraid that the virus will be brought to us!” “And there, that would be the catamaran …” adds Mireille, 68-year-old Islaise, who counts on the civility of newcomers.
There have been around fifty cases of Covid-19 on Ile d’Yeu. “One or two medical evacuations per day around the beginning of April with one death to be deplored,” explains the mayor. With a helicopter carrying out medical evacuations “under maintenance”, a total absence of artificial respirators and only thirty resuscitation beds in the small local hospital, Ile d’Yeu is not armed to fight against the virus. The appearance of the smallest large-scale cluster would lead to the immediate reconfiguration of the island. “This is why there is a lot of apprehension here to see people disembarking, admits Kayleigh, at the same time manager of a clothing store on the port and liberal nurse. Especially since the population is quite old here … “34% of the inhabitants are over 60 years old.
Marie-Gabrielle, a long-time resident of the island, falls into this category, but she does not take a dim view of the coming influx of tourists. “I have a girlfriend who is reluctant because she is afraid for her grandchildren, but the island needs all these tourists to come back to life. We are not going to stay cloistered alone here, even if we are not bad … “Especially when the thermometer is close to 26 ° C and the brightness of the sun gives an emerald color to the sea.
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