In response to customer enquiries about camping and gîte accommodation and for the benefit of previous customers and others that know La Royale, I thought it would be a good idea to publish a brief summary of what's happening here instead of answering your regular emails.

Preamble :

Totally surrounded or landlocked by a golf course under development by LAND BRIDGE CAPITAL (LBC), Domaine La Royale is set within exactly 20,000 square metres (2 hectares) of private land in a rural location in the South of France, about 25 minutes by car North of Carcassonne within the boundary of a village called Villardonnel.

John Richard Wright (British) is the Président of LAND BRIDGE CAPITAL (LBC). Although I have seen Mr Wright, I've never had occasion to meet or speak with him. Mr Jacques Ouwerx (Belgian) is the Project Leader. Mr Phillipe Mahé is the current golf Technical Manager displacing Mr Thierry Lefebvre.

Family-owned, Domaine La Royale used to be a tranquil place near Carcassonne with panoramic views in all directions. Our self-catering holiday gîte and camping site used to be ideally situated to enable you to appreciate all the richness of Languedoc-Roussillon in Southern France.

Since 2008, the air has been filled with the dulcet tones of diggers, bulldozers and tractors ferrying their spoil. Regularly, a strong whiff of badly burnt hydrocarbons may divert your attention towards the plant perpetrator. During the summer, this region is drier than a bone and often very windy.

So, how can La Royale possibly continue to offer any tourist facilities of any description with all that commotion?  Plus, not unsuprisingly, the place has huge mounds of soil and sundry piles of excavated material scattered around. Not exactly an eyesore but not pleasing to the eye either.    

So what's going to happen, you ask ?  Truly, I have absolutely no idea! Your guess is as good as mine. Something connected with this golf in Villardonnel appears in the newspapers most every week. The latest is an article entitled, La Guerre des Golfs published by Siné Mensuel dated 4th of December 2011 and authored by Mr Laurent Hazgui.

In my view, one of the biggest issues is the lack of local water. Plus, the developers want to provide public facilities to support hundreds of people in dwellings planned for construction around the periphery of their intended golf course. The village of Villardonnel simply does not have the infrastructure in any respect, to support such an intended development of this size.

What I do fathom and in my humble opinion, Mr Daniel Geri, the Mayor of Villardonnel, and his deputies, are made of the right stuff. He and his elected adjoints have led from the front since Day-1 and demonstrate unparalleled honesty and transparency in the management of the village and the town hall and are relentless in their quest for justice and fairness. I have no doubt that their ongoing commitment to Villardonnel is of omni-competent benefit to all who reside within.

If you wish to learn more about the history of this golf development at Villardonnel, simply visit Google.fr with your search terms. And just in case you were wondering if I like golf? The answer is no. I played a round of golf just the once and hated every minute of it. 

Last edited: 03 APRIL 2012 by the EU UK owner of Domaine La Royale.