Eco Golf Holidays
 |
Au naturel ... Belle Dune eco-village near the Bay of Somme. Photograph: Kirsten Broomhall |
What's an eco village? What's an eco golf holiday?
Belle Dune, 110 Km drive from Calais, is a lakeside village of 236 brightly painted wooden houses and 68 apartments and is sandwiched between lush green farmland and a 250ha protected nature reserve on sand dunes, which lead to the wide expanse of the Bay of Somme and has strong eco tendencies.
Belle Dune is an experiment. Pierre & Vacances, which owns the village and is aligned with the family holiday group Centre Parcs, has set the village up in partnership with WWF in France as a pilot site to promote sustainable tourism.
Its environmental selling points apart from its location, include being a traffic-free village; having its 18-hole golf course, which manages to sneak in between the reserve and the village, irrigated with non-drinking water; and ongoing care of the surrounding dunes, pine forests and man-made lakes.
More information over at Guardian Unlimited
More from Golf Holidays