In France, drought is manifested by forest fires but also by desert landscapes.
Boats, kayaks and paddles stationary. In some regions, the Franco-Swiss river Doubs has completely dried up. Nautical activities are cancelled.
A cruise had to be cut short. “We were brought with a shuttle to the boat whereas usually, we start directly with the boat. I am not from the region but people are starting to say that it lacks a lot of water”, says Alain, a tourist.
On the Swiss side too, the drought is impacting the tourism sector. This restaurant sees its turnover drop, like the level of the water. “We barely have 15% of the current turnover. Usually, we do 80 to 100 covers per day. At the moment, we sometimes do 10, sometimes 12 covers… On Sundays, we sometimes go up to 20 people. It’s catastrophic”, indicates Christophe, the owner of a restaurant.
Back to France, in the department of Indre, where hundreds of fish died because of too low and too hot water.
“The last drought was in 2018. It was exceptional. The one before was in 1906. We hope it’s really exceptional,” adds Françoise, owner of a boat company.
The department of Doubs, where the river that bears the same name passes, has been on “crisis” alert since Wednesday.