What is your profession, your activity; how long have you been installed at Lake Vassivière?
My profession is above all my life in Broussas, here on the beach. I spend a third of the year, from June to September, at “La Cabane de la plage”My job today is a restaurateur, but my concern is to offer my customers fresh, quality, if possible local products (tomatoes from Pigerolles, cheeses from Gentioux and Nedde, homemade jams, and surprises from the garden…), in order to help them discover the riches of the plateau.
I also hope that the Cabane soir a festive place, of exchange, of conviviality, of meetings… Besides, every year, I make friends. Here, we are also a bit the Tourist Office, because we inform enormously the holidaymakers.
Why this choice? Tell me about your background:
I am originally from Sologne. I was working as an educator. One day, after a long trip I took a break at a friend’s house in La Villedieu. There, I realized that in Sologne, everything is fenced in, private. Here, on the plateau, it is the opposite. I felt a feeling of freedom with these wide open spaces. Moreover, water has always attracted me and there it is ubiquitous: lakes, rivers, springs and peat bogs surround us.
In 1986, I found a house to remodel in Creuse. I passed a professional certificate of organic market gardener in 1988 and in 1990, and I settled. At the same time, I created a self-employed business in green spaces.
My activity brought me closer to the lake and I began to rub shoulders with tourists by selling my vegetables, berries and jams at markets and at the Broussas campsite at aperitif time: everything was going very fast! At the same time, I was working at the vacation village of Nedde (multi-tasking at the pool, tennis, in the kitchen): my first experience in tourism!
At the time around the lake, there were mobile trucks. In 1995, the year of the emptying, The Syndicate Le Lac de Vassivière wished to replace them with beach restos by authorizing the construction. Thus, in 1999, I worked at the Cabanes de Nergout. The setting, like the atmosphere, facing the lake, was ideal, especially since at the time I was still sailing catamarans. It was the best!”
In 2003, I had the opportunity to buy the Cabane de Broussas from Steph, an emblematic figure of the lake – a thought for him – and since then, my business has grown with the construction by the Syndicat du Lac of a more spacious and functional cabin (today I am no longer the owner, but a tenant!). It has become a family business: I work there with my son Jonathan, who also caught the “Vassivière” virus (he was a lifeguard at the Lake, then drove the cab boats). In the summer, my second son Robin, joins us for the season.
It is a magical place, the setting is exceptional, and I like to give it a festive spirit with the organization of concerts. I even have other projects in mind such as antique cinema in 8 and super 8 at night and in the open air: the setting lends itself wonderfully well to it.
To be continued!
