Are you thinking about your next road trip in a campervan and wondering if you have the right to park anywhere? What do the regulations say about this and what are the good practices? We decipher it together!
- Sleeping in your van: camping or wild camping?
- Parking your van, what do the regulations say?
- A look at our European neighbors
- Good camping practices
- Other possibilities for parking your campervan
Sleeping in your van: camping or wild camping?
We must begin by distinguishing the camping from wild camping. The idea is not to settle down like at the campsite for a week in nature.
Camping : camp established from dusk to sunrise. In short, we park to sleep, we put away our gear at night and we leave the next day.
Wild camping : camp set up for several days. If you take out all the camping gear and unfold the awning during the day, it can be considered wild camping.
Parking your van, what do the regulations say?
In France, the regulations do not really make a difference between wild camping and camping. However, in reality, the camping is much more tolerated. According to the Town Planning Code, here is what is indicated:
“Article R111-32 – Camping is freely practiced, outside the right-of-way of roads and public thoroughfares, under the conditions set by this subsection, with the agreement of whoever has use of the land, subject, where applicable, the opposition of the owner.”
Thus, outside private land, it is authorized to camp wherever it is not prohibited. Regarding public places, wild camping is prohibited:
- on the shores of the sea
- in a site classified or registered in the natural heritage protection zones
- in woods, forests and classified parks
- on roads and public roads
- less than 500m from a historic monument
- within a radius of 200m around a water point captured for consumption
- around areas defined by the municipality by decree
In national and regional parks, the regulations are specific to each park. Some tolerate the camping under certain conditions. Find out before your stay about what is authorized or not.
Parking in a vehicle fitted out in a car park or in town for a single night can be tolerated if you do not take any equipment out and there is no municipal or prefectural decree prohibiting it.
A look at our European neighbors
The regulations concerning campnig or wild camping vary from one country to another. The Trigano site has published a map of the countries authorizing or not authorizing wild camping. The best thing is to find out before your road trip in the countries you plan to visit.
In some countries (Nordic Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia) there is the right to access to nature “allemansrätt”. This allows everyone to enjoy nature and landscapes. Also in these countries you can camp freely (respecting the environment and the local residents of course…).
Good camping practices
- Do not expose yourself unnecessarily to everyone’s eyes, you risk attracting the attention of local residents and the authorities. Prefer small remote places, you will be more peaceful there.
- Arrive late and leave early: only one night in the same place. Unfold your camp at nightfall and fold it up at sunrise.
- Do not leave anything lying around at night: we put away chairs, tables, barbecues, garbage cans and empty bottles… We also don’t forget to put away the awning and the washing line on which Jean-Maurice’s clothes dry.
- Respect the natural place in which you have parked your converted vehicle as well as any local residents: no loud music, moderate light. Wildlife and neighbors thank you 😊!
- If you make a fire, first check that it is not prohibited, make sure you are not in a dry period (you do not want to start a fire!), prefer a brazier or, failing that, delimit the hearth with stones.
- Do not empty your waste water into nature! Do it on the areas provided for this.
- Finally the last rule but surely the most important: we leave the site cleaner than we found it.
Other possibilities for parking your campervan
- There are applications that identify the sites where you can settle down for the night, whether on public land or with an individual who opens his garden to you, or even with a farmer. Here are some applications: Park4night, Homecamper, Le camping Sauvage, FrancePassion.
- You appreciate the comfort of the facilities of a campsite, then rent a pitch provided for.
- RV service areas are another option for overnight parking. They also offer the possibility of plugging in, filling up with water and sometimes being able to empty your waste water.
