A family business

For 3 generations, the TETARD family has been welcoming you to a family treasure.

Founded in 1960

This small family campsite of 5600m² welcomes you in a calm, secure, green and friendly setting with its 30 rental pitches. This is why most of the campsite is in a pedestrian zone.

Rated 3 stars in 2017, we are located 900m from the beach of the Arcachon basin and 1.5 km from the town centre and shops.

With a variety of accommodation to suit everyone, Les Ecureuils campsite offers 15 ranges of accommodation.

1st generation

Guy Tétard, creator of the Les Ecureuils campsite, puts his heart and soul into achieving his goal.

Michel, Guy’s son, tells us: “My father, Guy, was a pastry chef in Arès, and ran his own shop. It was a difficult job, always on his feet. He had the idea of creating a campsite, and to do so, in 1958, he bought this wooded plot of land situated completely outside the town at the time.

 

He had paid 200,000 old francs, which was eight times the guaranteed minimum wage. He had paid cash, selling his rifle so as not to be tempted to go hunting, his Vespa and
a radio.

And for two years, in his spare time and with the help of his family, he cleared the land. In 1959, as he had no planning permission, he found a STEF (Société Française de Transports et Entrepôts Frigorifique) refrigerated wagon, delivered without axles, from the SNCF.

 

Laid on concrete blocks by a crane, the wagon has been given a complete makeover, both inside and out, with two bedrooms and a living room/kitchen. It became our main residence and the campsite reception. I was ten years old. You could say that we inaugurated the first mobile home in the Basin! “.

The campsite began with bare pitches. Three years after it opened, and under family management, in 1963, the campsite was rented out on a year-round basis to the works council of the Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt.

2nd generation

IOn 1994, Edith Tétard, Charlotte’s mother, took over the management of the 2-star campsite with 44 pitches, initially on her own. The following year, she was joined by her husband Michel, until then an aeronautical electrician at Airbus. A new beginning for this campsite and this family.

A new clientele to attract. What better way to do this than with a swimming pool, a rarity for a 2-star campsite. And it was at the same time that the first mobile homes arrived on the campsite. “Our mobile homes are regularly renewed, every five years in my parents’ day, now every two years, or they are completely refurbished by us,” explains Charlotte.
This campsite was a success in the 90s.

The campsite is evolving and living with the times, adapting to the context. After the storm of the
century in 1999, the campsite becomes semi-pedestrianised. On the night of 28-29 December, storm Martin reached wind gusts of over 170 km/h and ravaged the South-West, and the Gironde in particular. Arès was not spared. Michel Tétard remembers: “All the trees were on the ground, there was nothing left. In winter, we rented out to workers or people waiting to be rehoused, so a dozen mobile homes were occupied. Miraculously, there were no injuries..

Most of the customers took refuge in the carriage, a real fallout shelter! Solidarity took hold, and the insurance company covered 80% of the damage”. Everything had to be rebuilt in six months, to reopen in June 2000.

The layout of the campsite dates back to this period. Edith Tétard has redesigned the pitches, each of which is bordered by hedges that are now three metres high, to great effect. Why a pedestrianised campsite? Michel explains: “In the heat of summer, cars driving on the crushed limestone ground created a cloud of dust that took two minutes to settle. Banning cars from three-quarters of the pitches was much appreciated, especially by families with children…”.

In 2003, the Tétard family decided to invest profitably in the construction of a tourist residence with 20 accommodation units and a restaurant. Charlotte explains: “These buildings have certainly reduced the surface area of the campsite by 2,000 m2, i.e. thirteen pitches less, but their construction has enabled us to offer an additional rental range with flats.

3rd generation

Charlotte Tétard, born in 1982, joined the campsite in 2007 after completing a degree in law, and it was only natural that she should join the family business as an employee. In 2015, she became manager and owner of the campsite, after buying the business from her mother Edith. Her father, Michel, still owns the campsite to this day. And so the 3rd generation of the family to manage Les Ecureuils campsite was created.

From 1960 to the present day, this campsite has gradually evolved within a single family, with the same education and sales policy. Charlotte tells us more: “I was 4 years old when my grandfather Guy died. When the campsite opened in 1960, it was 7,600 m2 of exclusively bare pitches. Today, the surface area is 5600 m2, and the pitches for tents or caravans have disappeared in favour of 30 mobile homes, since 2008, plus two chalets, ex-railway wagons”.

Charlotte has now taken over the running of the campsite, which has 33 pitches and will be open all year round until 2021.

 

Evolution in pictures :

BEFORE :

AFTER :

Today, 2022, this campsite opens from February to November and offers 30 mobile homes, 2 chalets, 1 double hotel room and 2 apartments in the residence.
double hotel room and 2 flats in the residence. Charlotte keeps the campsite in step with the times and adapts to changes in the market and demand. The campsite doesn’t offer any entertainment, but Charlotte is keen to pamper her customers as much as possible thanks to her carefully selected team, both year-round and seasonal. A real team, smiling and dynamic, with a friendly, family atmosphere, at your service.

Quality over quantity.

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