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The official first stone is laid for Villages Nature

2 min reading time

Published on 12/12/14 - Updated on 17/03/22

Pose de la première pierre Villages Nature

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls went to Marne-la-Vallée to lay the symbolic first stone for a project that has been in gestation for over a decade, Villages Nature, jointly supported by EuroDisney and Pierre&Vacances-Center Parcs. The first phase will be delivered in 2016.

While icy rain threatened to dampen spirits at the construction site for Villages Nature the enthusiasm of its joint supporters and public authorities remained unquelled as they welcomed Prime Minister Manuel Valls to lay the first stone of the complex that represents one of the biggest tourism investments happening in France.

The product of a 50/50 joint-venture between Euro Disney SCA, presided over by Tom Wolber, and Pierre&Vacances-Center Parcs, presided over by Gérard Brémond, Villages Nature will occupy a large, mostly wooded vast 32 km from Paris and 6 km from two amusement parks. In its development it will absorb the current Davy Crockett camp that no longer serves any purpose.



According to the model, presented by Dominique Cocquet, project leader, the development will cover a total of 260 hectares, around an aqualagoon. The different spaces will refer to the elements of nature: earth, air, water... accompanied by “One Planet Living” for their conception. It bears the DNA of its two developers while giving rise to its own originality: a nearby short-stay holiday destination it has 916 living units in phase one, with apartments and cottages, designed in keeping with the strictest environmental and landscape standards with the intervention of François des Gâtines. According to the New Property model developed by Pierre & Vacances, the apartments and cottages are financed by private owners who benefit from tax breaks. Three levels of comfort are available: Bulle, Nature and Clan, which are adapted to cocooning couples, friends on a break, and families with young children. 

There are many activities, under Jacques Ferrier's glass pyramid, designer of the Pavillon France at the Shanghai Expo, as well as in the Extraordinary Gardens, the Enchanted Forest, the spa, the fitness loop, the model farm, bodies of water.... and dozens of kilometers of paths in preserved forests.

One of the originalities of the site is that it it has sourced energy from an 78°C aquifer several kilometers underground that covers 100% of the needs for heating and may even be exported to the nearby Disney Village. "This is the first French site that fully lives the transition to renewable energy," proudly explains Dominique Cocquet.



For the first phase, 500 million euros were invested by the joint-venture, in association with the government , the Region and the Department, which finance access infrastructures. The Prime Minister was present because of the project's qualification as an Operation of National interest, which is exemplary in many regards because of its goals, design, realization and financing. It produces some 1,600 jobs in its construction phase and a thousand for operations in the first phase from June 2016. 


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