Latest news with #LaurenceRossignol
Spectator
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Childfree zealots are anti-humanity
Few things in life are more French than a dispute animée about holidays. While the Spanish enjoy an easy relationship with mañana and the Italians savour il dolce far niente (sweet idleness), the French will incite a riot over any threat to their leisure time faster than you can say faire une pause. It's therefore little surprise to witness the ardourof government officials in condemning childfree resorts, a rare but growing feature of French holidaymaking. Saint-Delis in Normandy is but one hotel offering an 'ever more exclusive and peaceful experience' with 'absolute relaxation' for only €334 a night. The existence of such facilities has prompted Laurence Rossignol, a former families minister, to propose that adult-only venues should be banned. The Socialist party senator claimed that they 'institutionalise and legitimise intolerance', adding for good measure that 'to not like children is to not like humanity itself'. With rates of childlessness only climbing worldwide, it's a debate that will only become more pertinent. France's fertility rate is a mere 1.66 births per woman, according to the World Bank, with birthrates at their lowest ebb since the second world war. In Britain (1.56 births per woman), the Office for National Statistics recently revealed that a slender majority of women turned 30 without having had their first child in 2020, for the first time in history. Such is the scale of the childlessness that even the bien pensants are spooked. Last year French president Emmanuel Macron called for 'demographic rearmament', offering six months parental leave for both parents, free fertility checks for 25-year-olds, and more funding for reproductive technology. The vogue for childfree hospitality indicates this is as much a cultural problem as a financial or even technological one. Earlier this year France's high commissioner for childhood, Sarah El Haïry, felt obliged to publicly rebuke anti-child attitudes, arguing that the country must resist the notion 'that children aren't welcome on a restaurant terrace'. To some degree the reaction is overwrought. One travel company group reckons that only 3 per cent of France's hotels and resorts qualify as childfree, and many of those visiting will be parents who have dropped Josephine and Gabriel off at the in-laws for a weekend of amour – or at least a few nights of unbroken sleep. Having the odd pub that bars patrons still in primary school is likewise no great crisis if there's a more family-friendly alternative nearby, nor should there be any objection to the curfews imposed in many British venues, ordering children home for bedtime. Even if we're allowing kids to vote, there's no need to have them hogging the barstools. But there is a darker side to these reasonable requests. While the decision not to have children is a legitimate exercise of personal agency, the emboldened childfree movement – who dislike the more exposing 'childless' description – are increasingly arguing that other people's children should be neither seen nor heard. I've visited cafes – a trade heavily reliant on mothers of young children – who will post signs declaring that dogs are allowed, but children merely tolerated. See also the growth in childfree weddings: as if a marriage without children isn't basically a tax avoidance scheme. Public transport is another battleground, with a viral TikTok clip from April 2023 showing a man throw a hissy fit over a baby crying on a plane stuck in a holding pattern. This June an American sports pundit called for parents to 'brain rot the baby on TikTok' if it starts crying in the sky, and only a few days ago the Standard reported that a fight broke out on a Ryanair flight in response to infant tears. This is all to say that childfree zealots are as prone to temper tantrums as the toddlers they despise. Much of this comes downstream of intellectual attempts to paint child-rearing as a quirky personal interest, rather than the only reason any of us are alive. No doubt all parents enjoy a slither of solipsism in replicating their genes. But this is rather undercut by the self-sacrifice of raising the pickles, as many childless people cite when justifying their decision not to have any. Still, the childless are happy to draw from the welfare state when they reach their autumn years, funded, naturally, by other people's children. All of that is anyway besides the point. At the risk of sounding like a heartbleeder, what matters is that children are people like any other. They can be loud, annoying and inconsiderate, much like adults. Both deserve a place in public, even if it upsets those with dual incomes and no kids.
Metro
2 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
Adult-only hotels that ban children 'like dogs' could be made illegal in France
Children cannonballing into pools, running through the lobby and spaghetti on the floor in the restaurant. This is the kind of youthful chaos that a growing number of adults are keen to avoid while going on holiday – Metro readers included. Yet French politicians are looking at ending grown-up escapes as venues treat children as 'troublesome pests'. Should adult-only hotels be banned, or should adults be able to book time away from youngsters? Email us at: webnews@ Former French families minister Laurence Rossignol was quoted by The Guardian as saying: 'We can't organise society by separating children off from ourselves in the same way some establishments don't take dogs.' The Oise senator has proposed a bill to make it illegal to ban children from venues by considering it age discrimination under the Penal Code. These child-free spaces, according to Rossignol, amount to 'organising society around people's intolerance of others'. They 'allow people to say, 'I don't like children and I don't want to see them',' she said. 'And that is not acceptable, because to not like children is to not like humanity itself.' Our readers aren't so sure about that. Gid Eon told us: 'Surely that's also a form of discrimination. Discriminatory for those who don't want to be around a load of screaming kids?' Bliss Natasha added: 'People who choose not to have children should be able to go on holiday and have some peace.' Arwen Carol, a part-time supply teacher, said not wanting to be around children isn't discrimination, it's wanting to relax. 'There's plenty of spaces that cater really well for families with kids and there's space for both without turning it into an issue,' she commented. It's not just Rossingnol mourning the loss of the hotels with kids' clubs, teen zones with pool tables and face-painting sessions. Sarah El Haïry, the French government's high commissioner for childhood, believes excluding families from accommodation is 'real violence'. Haïry has launched a 'Family Choice' campaign for parents to recommend businesses that offer child-friendly prices, events and facilities. 'A child shouts, laughs and moves… we are institutionalising the idea that silence is a luxury and the absence of children is a luxury,' she told the broadcaster RTL. Adult-only holidays are nothing new, being popular since the 1970s in hotspots like Greece, Thailand and the US. Adverts for these child-free hotels, cruises and camps often feature smiling adults clinking glasses of wine in complete and utter silence. An Expedia survey in 2023 found that guests at these resorts were 63% more likely to rate their time as 'exceptional' compared to those at mixed-age resorts. Some Metro readers, including parents and guardians of children, said they'd even be willing to pay extra for a child-free hotel, flight or cinema. They described how it's not so much children not being on the premises that they're willing to pay for, but it's not being around childish behaviour. Shannon Baird said: 'As a mother of two, no, I don't think they should be banned. Not everyone wants to deal with our kids screaming and running around playing all the time.' Alex Doody wrote that, if he's paying thousands of pounds for a holiday, he expects a certain level of service. 'That level of service cannot be achieved if there are packs of 'free-range' kids running around unchecked, creating mayhem and iPad kids having a meltdown every time they're parted from Minecraft for two seconds,' he said. Thomas Pennington said that a simple reason why adult-only venues shouldn't be banned is that 'not everyone wants kids'. One in 10 French people say they don't want children, more than twice the number from 2005. As fewer French people have children, researchers estimate that up to 5% of the holiday market in France is adult-only. Hotels like Saint-Delis in Honfleur in Normandy promise 'peaceful' experiences away from youth, while Camp Laurent in the sunflower fields of Poitou-Charentes brands itself as 'exclusively for adults'. French tour operators like Fram and Kuoni are also catering more to 'adult-only' holiday experiences. More Trending No family in France has ever taken legal action against a venue for hanging a sign reading 'no children', according to French legal experts. Article 225-1 says people who discriminate against someone 'based on age or family status' face three years in prison and €45,000 (£39,000) fine. As much as the majority of Metro readers disagreed with the idea of banning child-free hotels, Sue Dudley said she feels differently. 'Each to their own,' she commented, 'but I find adult-only very boring.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Virgin orders 12 new high-speed trains in biggest challenge to Eurostar yet MORE: Manchester Airport flights grounded after easyJet planes 'clip wings' on runway MORE: Four bodies pulled from the same spot in the River Seine in Paris
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Call to ban ‘intolerant' child-free resorts and hotels in France
Child-free resorts and adult-only hotels are discriminatory, risk creating a society of intolerance and should be banned, a French senator has said, amid a growing debate in France on whether it is inhumane to exclude children from holidays. 'We can't organise society by separating children off from ourselves in the same way some establishments don't take dogs,' said Socialist senator and former French families minister Laurence Rossignol. 'Children aren't troublesome pets.' Last month, the French government's high commissioner for childhood, Sarah El Haïry – who has warned that adult-only holiday resorts were 'not part of [French] culture, not our philosophy and not what we want to see as the norm in our country' – launched a Family Choice award as part of what she called a 'fight against the new no kids trend'. El Haïry called for French parents to vote for their favourite child-friendly locations as a way to 'put children back at the heart of public space' and stand up to the adults-only sector. 'No way can we let it take hold in our society that children aren't welcome on a restaurant terrace,' she told Parents magazine. But Rossignol said the government must go further, and called for a parliamentary debate on her proposal to make it illegal to ban children from venues in France. Rossignol said child-free spaces amounted to 'organising society around people's intolerance of others' and served to 'institutionalise and legitimise intolerance'. Rossignol said these resorts 'allow people to say: 'I don't like children and I don't want to see them.' And that is not acceptable, because to not like children is to not like humanity itself.' Child-free resorts and hotels – often advertised with images of relaxed adults on sun-loungers undisturbed by kids shouting or dive-bombing in the pool – have expanded across the world in recent years, and businesses say demand has risen since the Covid lockdowns. For decades, hotels reserved for adults have been popular in locations such as Mexico and Central America, Thailand and Greece, attracting many northern European tourists, including Germans and Britons. South Korea has also seen a rise in child-free cafes and restaurants. But France – traditionally family-focused and with one of the highest birthrates in Europe – has instead prided itself on its family-friendly holiday attractions, from towering hotel waterslides to campsites with kids' clubs. France has relatively few adult-only hotels and resorts, estimated to account for 3–5% of overall tourism, far less than neighbouring Spain, a market leader. As the French birthrate declines and the president, Emmanuel Macron, calls for a 'demographic rearmament' of pro-child policies, there is renewed debate over children's shrinking place in society. An expert report last year on reducing French children's screen-time said children must be given more alternatives to phones and take up their 'rightful place' in society, including 'their right to be noisy'. Véronique Siegel, the president of the hotel section of the UMIH trade union, said child-free hotels were 'extremely rare' in France compared with the total number of tourism businesses. She said there was a targeted market and hotels were simply meeting clients' demands. She added: 'For people seeking adult destinations, if there are none left in France because we're told it's illegal, would they go to neighbouring European countries, or further afield?' Vincent Lagarde, an associate professor of entrepreneurship and business at the University of Limoges, who studies the business model of child-free resorts, said the top reason holidaymakers chose them was not because they hated children, but because they needed a rest. Lagarde said: 'There is a kind of physical and mental exhaustion in French society right now, a need to switch off from professional and family burdens. It's much more complex than simply not liking children, because my research showed that around one-third or more of these holidaymakers were exhausted parents who needed a break from their family. It wasn't that they didn't like children, they just needed a pause from the rhythm of the rest of the year. And I also observed teachers, or people who work with children. These aren't people who don't like kids, but people who need a bit of time without them.' Lagarde found the second reason people chose child-free resorts was for special time as a couple or with friends – a 2014 poll in France found that 56% of parents had gone on holiday without their children, mostly for romantic mini-breaks. Finally, there was what Lagarde called a 'perception of luxury' associated with adults-only locations. These hotels could charge higher prices simply because there were no children making noise. Lagarde said that while French anti-discrimination and trade laws were open to interpretation on the issue, no family in France had ever brought a legal complaint against a hotel for not admitting children. He said the sector was likely to continue to grow steadily in France, in the same way that child-free weddings had increased. Jean-Didier Urbain, an anthropologist and author of a recent book, What Our Travels Say About Us, said: 'There's a trend in society to seek more comfort and relaxation, more time to pause, and this is part of that. 'Vacations, after all, are traditionally a moment where citizens can detach themselves from their social obligations.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Call to ban ‘intolerant' child-free resorts and hotels in France
Child-free resorts and adult-only hotels are discriminatory, risk creating a society of intolerance and should be banned, a French senator has said, amid a growing debate in France on whether it is inhumane to exclude children from holidays. 'We can't organise society by separating children off from ourselves in the same way some establishments don't take dogs,' said Socialist senator and former French families minister Laurence Rossignol. 'Children aren't troublesome pets.' Last month, the French government's high commissioner for childhood, Sarah El Haïry – who has warned that adult-only holiday resorts were 'not part of [French] culture, not our philosophy and not what we want to see as the norm in our country' – launched a Family Choice award as part of what she called a 'fight against the new no kids trend'. El Haïry called for French parents to vote for their favourite child-friendly locations as a way to 'put children back at the heart of public space' and stand up to the adults-only sector. 'No way can we let it take hold in our society that children aren't welcome on a restaurant terrace,' she told Parents magazine. But Rossignol said the government must go further, and called for a parliamentary debate on her proposal to make it illegal to ban children from venues in France. Rossignol said child-free spaces amounted to 'organising society around people's intolerance of others' and served to 'institutionalise and legitimise intolerance'. Rossignol said these resorts 'allow people to say: 'I don't like children and I don't want to see them.' And that is not acceptable, because to not like children is to not like humanity itself.' Child-free resorts and hotels – often advertised with images of relaxed adults on sun-loungers undisturbed by kids shouting or dive-bombing in the pool – have expanded across the world in recent years, and businesses say demand has risen since the Covid lockdowns. For decades, hotels reserved for adults have been popular in locations such as Mexico and Central America, Thailand and Greece, attracting many northern European tourists, including Germans and Britons. South Korea has also seen a rise in child-free cafes and restaurants. But France – traditionally family-focused and with one of the highest birthrates in Europe – has instead prided itself on its family-friendly holiday attractions, from towering hotel waterslides to campsites with kids' clubs. France has relatively few adult-only hotels and resorts, estimated to account for 3–5% of overall tourism, far less than neighbouring Spain, a market leader. As the French birthrate declines and the president, Emmanuel Macron, calls for a 'demographic rearmament' of pro-child policies, there is renewed debate over children's shrinking place in society. An expert report last year on reducing French children's screen-time said children must be given more alternatives to phones and take up their 'rightful place' in society, including 'their right to be noisy'. Véronique Siegel, the president of the hotel section of the UMIH trade union, said child-free hotels were 'extremely rare' in France compared with the total number of tourism businesses. She said there was a targeted market and hotels were simply meeting clients' demands. She added: 'For people seeking adult destinations, if there are none left in France because we're told it's illegal, would they go to neighbouring European countries, or further afield?' Vincent Lagarde, an associate professor of entrepreneurship and business at the University of Limoges, who studies the business model of child-free resorts, said the top reason holidaymakers chose them was not because they hated children, but because they needed a rest. Lagarde said: 'There is a kind of physical and mental exhaustion in French society right now, a need to switch off from professional and family burdens. It's much more complex than simply not liking children, because my research showed that around one-third or more of these holidaymakers were exhausted parents who needed a break from their family. It wasn't that they didn't like children, they just needed a pause from the rhythm of the rest of the year. And I also observed teachers, or people who work with children. These aren't people who don't like kids, but people who need a bit of time without them.' Lagarde found the second reason people chose child-free resorts was for special time as a couple or with friends – a 2014 poll in France found that 56% of parents had gone on holiday without their children, mostly for romantic mini-breaks. Finally, there was what Lagarde called a 'perception of luxury' associated with adults-only locations. These hotels could charge higher prices simply because there were no children making noise. Lagarde said that while French anti-discrimination and trade laws were open to interpretation on the issue, no family in France had ever brought a legal complaint against a hotel for not admitting children. He said the sector was likely to continue to grow steadily in France, in the same way that child-free weddings had increased. Jean-Didier Urbain, an anthropologist and author of a recent book, What Our Travels Say About Us, said: 'There's a trend in society to seek more comfort and relaxation, more time to pause, and this is part of that. 'Vacations, after all, are traditionally a moment where citizens can detach themselves from their social obligations.'
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Telegraph
‘People want peace, not poolside tantrums': The rise of child-free holidays
A summer's morning, just after 9am, and something astonishing is happening: I am still in bed. In the six years since I have had children, this is entirely unheard of. There are no elephantine footsteps charging towards my bedroom; no clammy, jammy hands clawing at my covers; no piercing shrieks of 'Muuuuuum!' over cornflakes and toast. The silence – aside from birds chirruping through my open window – is deliciously deafening. I am, of course, not at home (where my harried husband is wrangling our two children through the morning rigmarole entirely solo) – but have spent the night at an adults-only hotel, one of a growing number of properties, both in the UK and abroad, that specifically ban under-16s. Statistics suggest there are now more than 1,000 such hotels, B&Bs and holiday resorts worldwide, driven by demand from child-free and solo travellers – not to mention parents who, like me, adore their offspring, but sometimes dream of getting far, far away from them. But that dream could be under threat due to a recent challenge under French law, which suggests the 'no-kids trend' could amount to 'violence against children' under equalities legislation. Laurence Rossignol, a socialist senator, is reportedly planning to introduce a Private Member's Bill to make it illegal to ban children from French hotels, restaurants and campsites – a move which could have dramatic repercussions for child-free venues around the world. This doesn't trouble Frank Lawrenson, the owner of Rectory Manor in Great Waldingfield, a picturesque village in rural Suffolk, which has been grown-ups-only since 2022. Indeed, Frank says he would have cut children from the guest list earlier, if only he hadn't had several of his own. 'Children can be so hard to manage, especially in a property like this,' says Frank, 58, who inherited the sprawling Georgian rectory – on a site that dates back 2,000 years – and turned it into a hotel, now a five-star country retreat with a swimming pool, tennis court and croquet lawn, in 2014. 'We wanted it to feel like a haven, and if you have children running around screaming, that's certainly not peaceful,' he adds. 'The policy is one of the main reasons guests choose to stay here.' He and his fiancée, Georgina, 48, have six children between them, now aged 18 to 23, and they first banned under-13s when their youngest turned 13. The lower age limit increased incrementally each year. Although both loved hosting families with younger guests, they decided it 'didn't suit the house' – certainly, there are sharp edges, uneven stairs and breakable ornaments everywhere. 'You might get a perfectly sweet two-year-old banging her spoon on the breakfast table and ruining the tranquillity for everyone else,' says Georgina. 'People come to escape. Even the best-behaved children can get on your nerves – especially when they're not your own.' The hotel seems to lavish in a sort of hedonism that simply wouldn't be possible with children around. Cut-glass decanters of whisky and gin adorn every room. Flames crackle perilously from open fireplaces. The artwork is eclectic and, in some quarters, verging on risqué. My room contains a roll-top bath, perched – somewhat incongruously – on a thick pile carpet. Quite delightfully, the property's motto, emblazoned on my key fob, is an Italian phrase – ' Non si vive solo per soffrire ' – which translates as 'One doesn't live only to suffer.' As a long-suffering, sleep-deprived, permanently frazzled parent, I could certainly get on board with that. Travel experts say adults-only hotels are part of a growing trend – dating back as far as the 1970s, when they first appeared in the Caribbean, and spreading to Spain and France in the early 2000s. But it's only in the past five years that they've really started booming in Britain, with mainstream holiday companies – such as Warner and Scott Dunn – now offering adults-only options. Online, you'll find copious Mumsnet threads devoted to child-free holidays, as well as luxury travel round-ups of five-star resorts that proudly ban children. According to Google Trends, searches for 'adults-only holidays' have soared in popularity since 2020. 'I've seen this trend gain real momentum,' says Liz Taylor, a hospitality and luxury brand consultant with 30 years' experience. 'Holidays have become more than a luxury – they're a lifeline. People want peace. They want to switch off. And, let's be honest, that's hard to do when you're dodging poolside tantrums or trying to enjoy a cocktail during a toddler's tea party.' Emma Latham, a Cheshire-based luxury travel planner, agrees. 'Not long ago, the only 'adults-only' offering in a resort might have been the later dinner setting,' she says. 'Today, we're seeing entire properties or dedicated areas within larger resorts designated specially for adult guests.' This, she explains, appeals to all sorts of holidaymakers – whether parents escaping their offspring for short getaways, couples without children who prefer to avoid family-focused environments, or empty nesters who want to enjoy their peace and quiet. Margaret and Jonathan Evans, from Pontypridd, are among the last. 'Since our youngest daughter left home last year, we wouldn't dream of staying anywhere that accepts children,' says Margaret, 67. 'It was hard enough going on holiday when our three were younger – always worrying about mealtimes, and whether they'd break anything or fall over. We couldn't switch off.' Geoff and Linda Banks, from Fleet, Hampshire, agree. 'I'd be so cross if the holiday I'd looked forward to for months was ruined by noisy children haring around the place,' says Geoff, 54. 'I just wish they did adults-only flights as well.' Staff members, too, say they prefer working at child-free properties – not only is there less mess to contend with, but they're not expected to act as makeshift babysitters. At Rectory Manor, the closest I come to youth in my 24-hour sojourn is 18-year-old waiter Cyrus, who serves a top-notch cooked breakfast, and tells me: 'When we allowed kids, the swimming pool was an issue – people were nipping to the mini-bar and expecting staff members to watch their children splashing about while they were gone. If anything had happened, we'd have been responsible.' Of course, the adults-only privilege comes at a premium: my weekday night away, plus breakfast, comes to £219. 'If you consider how much you would pay for a family of four to stay at a hotel for a week, would you pay the same amount for just two of you if it were an adult-only hotel? The answer seems to be yes,' says Aled Evans, a travel specialist at Our Local Tour. 'I most certainly would be willing to pay for it,' adds Raj Gill, a travel expert and the editor-at-large of Upscale Living magazine. 'I feel most people would be happy to pay extra to have a restful and relaxing holiday.' Consequently, holiday venues are reaping the rewards – both financial and reputational – of going adults-only. 'If a hotel or tour operator can differentiate itself and appeal to a certain demographic, then it has a market advantage,' Evans explains. There are, however, risks – not least alienating long-term guests who go on to have families and find themselves unwelcome. Frank Lawrenson admits that when he banned under-16s in 2022, there were some regulars – who had previously stayed with their children – who weren't happy about the change. 'It was sad, but ultimately for the best,' he says. But as the tide turns against children in Britain, do properties need to consider the legal ramifications of banning younger guests? In France, certainly, the 'no kids' policy seems to fly close to the wind, and the issue has reared its head in California, where a swath of stunning ocean-front properties – catering only to adults – have recently opened, prompting critics to question whether they contravene Section 51 of the state's Civil Code, which prevents discrimination. In the UK, under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of their age when providing goods and services – but there are exceptions. If a service is genuinely 'adults only' – such as a spa treatment, sports competition or nightclub – this is justifiable, as it relates to the nature of the service. This, it seems, would equally apply to holiday properties that cater solely to grown-ups. 'I doubt there are any legal issues,' says Taylor. 'We're talking about creating environments tailored to specific needs and preferences. It's about choice; not exclusion.' Gill agrees – but says the onus rests on hotels, B&Bs and resorts to inform prospective guests of their policy. 'As long as the rules are clearly laid out from the off, and the age limits and boundaries are established, then I do not see any future issues,' she adds. Nor, it must be said, do I. Still reclining in my four-poster bed, contemplating whether to go for a morning swim or a leisurely breakfast, I find myself searching online for another child-free break – perhaps swapping sunny Suffolk for Bali or the Bahamas – with my husband in tow, this time. Non si vive solo per soffrire, after all…
