France's other green protest: against Center Parcs
The protesters who have occupied the proposed site for a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes near Nantes in west France have grabbed media attention in recent years. Less well-known are the environmental activists who have set up a similar camp in an ancient forest on the other side of the country in a bid to stop the development of a new Center Parcs holiday centre. As Jade Lindgaard reports, unlike their anti-airport counterparts, the protesters opposing the Center Parcs project are from being universally popular with locals.
ToTo get there you have to clamber over bits of wood erected as a defensive mound. Lying between two banks a series of steps enable you to gain access to the habitable barricade that serves as a welcome area. It bears the name 'Saboté' ('Botched' in English) and is the gateway to a camp of protesters at Chambarans, a forest situated around sixty kilometres from Grenoble in eastern France.
