What are the official rules in France?
Wild camping (camping sauvage) and bivouacking are not allowed in France in the following locations:
- on private land (except with the owner’s permission)
- on the coast
- in protected natural sites
- at historic monuments
- within 200m of a water collection site
Anywhere else it is permitted, and local authorities may have their own rules, stricter or less so, about the above locations too.
Is it camping or bivouacking?
Camping tends to refer to those in campervans or larger tents and/or who want to stay somewhere more than one night. In France, bivouacking tends to be cyclists or walkers with a small tent (like me) or no tent who are looking for a discreet one-night stop. However, in English terminology and UK outdoor practices, bivouacking tends to be wild camping sans tent, possibly in a bivvy sack. For linguistic purposes I'll continue to refer to what I do as camping.
My personal rules and practical tips:
- Leave no trace except the patch of flat grass in the morning. I also pick up any litter that is already there.
- If there is someone nearby to introduce myself to, I like to do so - it gives me extra protection, as someone local knows who I am and what I am doing. I've had many offers of help and friendly check-ins this way, including from a woman who pointed out which was her house so I could knock on the door if I needed anything.
- No bazar. Generally locals are worried about (1) late-night noise and (2) litter.
- Remember to pick up a stone before you pitch, to knock in the tent pegs. I didn’t think of it on my first night camping sauvage and it made things very difficult and wonky.
I look ahead on Google maps using streetview and satellite view to see if there is a green space near the village cemetery (more on that below).
Trust your instincts. If a place doesn't feel right, move on. Once I found a spot otherwise suitable except for the fact that I had a strong not-good feeling about it, and I walked for another 2.5 hours before I could find somewhere else. The best ending to stories like this is “...and nothing happened”.
Conversely, if it's a bit too early to stop but you've found the perfect campsite, just stop and take the rest of the day off. If you walk past it you'll only be thinking about it all afternoon.
Respecting the wildlife vs self-preservation:
- I carefully rescue all insect intruders and put them outside. I'm pretty sure the ant whom I evicted - ridiculously - on a fifty euro note, it being the closest bit of paper I had to hand, filed an acidic complaint with the Housing Ombudsman Service.
- The exceptions to this rescue service are mosquitos and tics, which it is necessary to flatten. You have to squash tics with the edge of your thumb/fingernail.
- A neat way of getting a slug off the side of the tent rapidement is to poke it in the belly with the tip of a pencil. It has to be a quick procedure or it panics and slimes everywhere. I have yet to discover how to remove the resulting slime: any advice gratefully received.
- If you need to pick up a snail, tap it on the shell before you pick it up, so it knows about the manoeuvre and relaxes its grip. This seems like a poor survival strategy. Don't eat it without a good sauce beurre à l'ail.
Finding water
- Cemeteries almost always have a water tap so that visitors can water their flowers. Almost all taps offer drinking water, “eau potable”.
- I carry water purification tablets with me as well, so I can use the rare non-drinking water taps. These are marked "eau non-potable".
- Note that the cemeteries to look for are the municipal town/village ones, not the military cemeteries. If they are not placed around the church, they are usually a little outside the village centre, and I have often found a quiet spot to camp close by, so I start my search there. I always say hello, thank you and goodbye to the inhabitants.
- The app and website Watermap shows many (but not all) additional water taps.
(A note on military cemeteries)
Military cemeteries do not have a tap, as the gardening for these is managed by either the Commonwealth War Graves Commission or the French Ministry of Defence. Many of them have a visitor book and information on the inhabitants, kept in a metal locker at the entrance. You can check the book to see which pilgrims have passed by recently!
Bathing
I carry a 12 litre foldable camping bucket and have a "Cambodian bucket shower”, the bathing method I was taught in the countryside in Cambodia. I fill the bucket with fresh water, and use my coffee mug to scoop water from the bucket and pour it over me. I do not let used water land back in the bucket. One shower uses as little 6 litres but sometimes it’s fun to go wild and use a whole bucket. (For comparison, a ten minute bathroom shower can use 75-150 litres!). After a hot day's hiking this is the best wash you will ever have.
Laundry
I carry a laundry soap bar with me, wash my clothes in the bucket, and dry them on the bushes, the guylines, or my backpack when I’m walking, if the item is still damp in the morning. When I get to a town I put on my one and only dress and visit the laundromat (the laverie) with the rest of my clothes. Washing machine costs €5 and takes 30 minutes, laundry powder €1.20, dryer €2 for ten minutes (which is plenty, it drybakes your belongings).
Toilets
I carry a gardening trowel, so I can dig a hole for my deposit.
Litter
I save the paper bags from my croissants and baguettes to collect my teabags and other rubbish, and carry it with me until I find a bin.
Don't put your rubbish or recycling in the wrong household bin on the street, as the owner could be fined €35 for incorrect triage.
Food
- Never pass a restaurant if it's open and it’s lunchtime. It might be the last one for 83km.
- Bar-tabacs usually have a proper coffee machine. It's also the hub of the village so it's a good place to stop and have a chat about the weather, and ask to top up your water for free. They'll probably have a stamp for your Via Francigena credentiel too, if the Mairie is closed.
- Some small towns/villages have a small but well-stocked Proxi/Vival supermarket. Take your backpack off at the door, there usually isn't much room to manoeuvre inside.
- You need to meal-plan ahead using Google maps. I don't know how you would do this adventure without a smartphone.
- For home-cooked meals I generally have tinned mackerel in sauce, couscous/taboulé (cold-soak, more on this below), fresh vegetables and fruit, or a tin of vegetables.
- Babybel is a great travelling cheese and can last for days outside a fridge (and I will defend it as a decent fromage in its own right); as can the harder tommes and, surprisingly, an unripe Brie.
- Cured meats or charcuterie such as chorizo, rosette de Lyon, jambon de Bayonne etc are also fine out of the fridge for a couple of days.
- Dark chocolate has a higher melting point (46°C) than milk (40°C) or white (37°C) but sadly no chocolat will be safe in your bag in a heatwave.
- Listen to your body; it will tell you what it needs. A few weeks ago mine told me it was lacking calcium, so I ate a lot of flan around that time, and in Saint Quentin I ate four Flanbys in 24 hours, my all-time record.
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| Tins of mackerel and a good sauce, sold in every shop |
Cold-soaking
- This tabouleh is designed to be prepared with cold water.
- Cold-soaked couscous works well too, but make sure you buy the instant, pre-cooked kind, which you'll easily find in most supermarkets, not the traditional one. Add water and soak for 30 minutes.
- If you're using tabouleh or couscous with spices, the cold-soaked flavours won't be as pronounced as they would be with hot water, so you'll want something flavourful to go with it.
- Don't cold-soak raw rice or pasta, it won't be nutritious (or delicious) enough. I haven't tried cold-soaking instant noodles.
How to wild camp in a heatwave?
My advice? Unless you have an all-afternoon way of keeping cool (river, pool, church), don't. And most definitely don't cook on an open flame. Nine out of ten wildfires are caused by humans.
Gear:
(these aren't affiliate links, I just like my gear)
- Tent: Durston X-Mid 1 (835g). I highly recommend this. It uses my two trekking poles, so saves on weight. It’s completely waterproof even in heavy storms. It has two skins, the outer skin pitching before the inner mesh which is useful in the rain, and there are two sizeable vestibules to store my gear so it doesn’t infringe on my sleeping area. I can easily sit up inside with extra headspace and it doesn't feel cramped inside. There are also two wall pockets and two ceiling pockets, handy for a torch in the earlier pre-Solstice days when I was still awake after dark. The best feature is that it's almost invisible against a green or brown background, much like Sam and Frodo's Elven cloaks from Lothlórien, the colour of which is described by Lady Galadriel as “Leaf and branch, water and stone: they have the hue and beauty of all these things”. Durston is a Canadian company which ships to Europe.
- Sleeping bag: Sea to Summit Spark women’s regular bag (382g). This says it's good for nights down to 7°C, but I did get chilly a few times on nights that I don't think were as cold as that, and I had to sleep in my fleece.
- Inflatable sleeping mat with built-in pillow: Crivit from Lidl. I thought it would only last a few nights but you never know with good old Lidl and it’s still going strong! I wasn’t sure whether this would be an unnecessary frippery, but it was absolutely essential to have something under me with the cold nights.
- Stove: Campingaz Bleuet Micro Plus (180g). I love this tiny gadget. It's about the size of a hummingbird, or a standard-size pain au chocolat. You'll need the CV470 gas cannister.
- Bucket: Foldable 12 litre camping bucket, apologies for the Amazon link but mine is very good quality.
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| The Durston X-Mid 1 blends in like an Elven cloak (pictured from 25 paces) ———————————— See more posts here: Get in the tuktuk, no time to explain |
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