Wild camping in France: is it legal? (2026)

Allowed by default, but with the landholder's permission and outside prohibited zones. French law doesn't define bivouac separately: the camping rules apply to it.

• Off roads and public ways.
• With the agreement of whoever holds use of the land (and no owner objection).
• Never in the nationally prohibited categories, nor where a town hall has banned it with proper signs.

Legal by default — France says it in writing: “le camping est librement pratiqué” — but with the landholder's permission and outside the prohibited zones of articles R111-33 and R111-34.

• The landholder's permission is the condition, not a technicality: the legal framework gives you no right to any particular parcel.
• National prohibitions (coast, protected sites) and local ones still control.

Any local urban plan or mayoral order can ban camping in specific zones — but it's only enforceable if displayed at the town hall and signposted at the usual access points.

• The legal grounds can be health, safety, landscape, natural environment or farm/forest activity.
• No sign and no public display, and the ban isn't enforceable against you. With a sign, the argument is over.

Fine: Judicial range of €1,200 to €300,000 under planning law — the statutory bracket if it ends up in court, not an on-the-spot fine.

On the seashore itself (the “rivage”), banned — bivouac counts as camping for this purpose. The ban covers the shore itself, not everything near the coast.

• An official derogation path exists, meant for authorised events — not for your tent.

Banned on the seashore and in the other protected sites listed in article R111-33. Near-coast land outside those categories falls back to the general rule.

Fine: Judicial range of €1,200 to €300,000 (planning law) — not an on-the-spot fine.

Driving or parking a motor vehicle off the developed ways is banned on the shore and on public beaches and dunes open to the public. Parking on an ordinary road by the coast is a different story (see vans, below).

• Exceptions: rescue, police, operations, or prefect authorisation.

Only at the designated spots by participating refuges, in summer (1 Jun–30 Sep), booked in advance with the refuge keeper. From 19:00 to 8:00, low tent or no tent, one night per refuge.

• The refuge must be over an hour's walk from road access or the core boundary.
• The signed order says one night; the park's website suggests repeat nights if you strike camp each morning. The order controls — we've flagged it for recheck.

Installed or multi-night camping: banned in the park core.

New rule from June 2026: 19:00 to 9:00, small tent you can't stand in, one night per site, over an hour's walk from the core boundary and from parking areas.

• Site exceptions: Pré de la Chaumette and the Olan refuge stay allowed even within an hour of the boundary.
• At the Lauvitel and Muzelle lakes: banned within 500 m of the shore except in the signed bivouac zones.
• The director can impose quotas or advance booking by published decision — check the park's site before heading up.

Anything beyond the regulated bivouac — a tent up in daytime, installed gear, prolonged occupation — counts as “campement” and is banned in the core.

Over an hour's walk from road access or the core boundary, 19:00 to 9:00, tent you can't stand in, one night per site. Leave the ground alone: no trenches, no stone arrangements.

• In the rock-art zone (Merveilles/Fontanalbe): only at the signed areas by those two refuges.

Camping under any shelter: banned in the core.

Over an hour's walk from road access or the core boundary (or at the marked areas by refuges), 19:00 to 9:00, low tent or natural shelter.

• In the Néouvielle reserve, bivouac is limited to the marked areas at the Orédon and Aubert lakes.

Camping in a tent, vehicle or any shelter: banned throughout the core, parking areas included.

Non-motorised travellers only, within 50 m of a marked GR or GRP trail, 19:00 to 9:00, low tent or none, one night. Some sensitive segments are off-limits — check the park's live map.

• The temporary GR66/GR71 diversion (Pont du Lingas → Les Pises observatory) is closed to bivouac until 31 Dec 2027.

The odd one out among the parks: tents are allowed, but only within 50 m of an inhabited house (max 6 tents, 20 people, up to 3 months) — in other words, with the household's permission. Everything else, banned.

Banned year-round in every form: under the stars, in a tent, in a vehicle. Includes the verges of roads crossing the core. The park states a €68 per-person fixed fine.

Banned year-round, with no ordinary visitor exception.

For non-motorised hikers: one night, close to ways and trails, low tent or none, up no earlier than an hour before sunset and down within an hour after sunrise — and with the landowner's prior authorisation.

• Fully banned in the Chalmessin reserve and the Arc-Châteauvillain integral reserve (where the fine climbs: class-5 contravention, up to €1,500).
• Annex-4 heritage sectors are excluded and the director can temporarily ban areas or periods — check the current map and register first.

Banned on public core land; possible on enclosed holdings and private property with the owner's prior authorisation, under the ordinary national camping rules.

A PNR is not a national park: it has no regulatory power of its own over bivouac. The general rule applies — landholder permission, municipal orders, and any overlapping reserve or protected site.

• In practice: in a PNR don't look for “the park's rule” — look for the commune's and the specific reserve's.

There is no single rule for state forests: in Île-de-France the ONF bans it (except the regulated Rambouillet provision); in the Grande Chartreuse it's tolerated outside the reserve if you set up late, pack early, no fire, no trace. Check the specific forest.

In a legally classified “forêt de protection”, camping outside designated and signed areas is banned — a class-5 contravention, up to €1,500.

Fine: Up to €1,500 (class-5 contravention, Code forestier R163-11).

With permission from whoever holds the land, go ahead — but the owner's permission doesn't override national or municipal prohibitions. A private parcel can still sit in a banned zone.

A parked motorhome or van has the same rights as any vehicle as long as it isn't dangerous, obstructive, or parked more than 7 straight days in the same spot (or less where a local limit applies). France has no clear legal line that turns sleeping inside into “camping” — what gets sanctioned is what happens outside.

• Table, awning or levelling blocks outside, dumping water or nighttime noise can be sanctioned by other routes — and motivated local orders control.
• This rule doesn't apply on the shore, park cores or protected forests: their own rules control there.