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2024 bank holiday dates in France and how they are celebrated
There are technically 13 bank holidays in 2024 in France - and some are only celebrated in one area. Here are the dates to note
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Make sense of… boating in France
Summer is almost upon us and many people will be taking to the water once more. We recap what paperwork you might need to get afloat
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10 days off for just 3 holiday days: Why French workers love May
We also look at where people are planning to go during this added holiday time
Rules for camping in the wild in France
Are there any restrictions related to camping in the wild in France? Anything we should be aware of? G.B.
Basically you can camp anywhere where it is not forbidden by the land owners… but working out who the owners are and what their rules are is not always obvious.
Nature reserves and classified (protected) sites, and the seaside are generally off-limits, for example. However that is not necessarily the case in the national parks, especially if you are only camping out for one night – which is referred to as a bivouac (especially if it is a small, simple tent). In which case there are often specific rules, for example in the Ecrins or Mercantour national parks in the south-east, it is possible to bivouac from 19.00 to 9.00 if you do it at more than an hour’s walk from the park limits or a road. In the Cévennes the rules specify it is limited to people without a vehicle, using a tent which is not large enough to stand in, and that you should do it near to a marked path. It would be advisable to find out the rules for the area you plan to visit, for example on a website for a national park or from the mairie or directly from the owner if it is private land.
A distinction is sometimes made between bivouacking – a single night by a walker, in a simple tent, and ‘camping sauvage’ (for example with a larger tent, coming by car and camping out for several nights). Apart from checking permission, the basic advice for camping in the wild is to minimise noise and disturbance, not pick the plants and flowers, not start fires (and avoid smoking), not leave rubbish and keep to as small an area as possible.
Natural human waste should be buried.