Without a doubt, France is the most popular camping destination in Europe. Which is hardly surprising given the diversity of landscapes.

     There are around 11,000 campsites scattered across France, ranging from minimal facility farm campsites (camping à la ferme) through to all-singing, all-dancing luxury holiday parks. Most campsites are graded by stars, one to four in much the same way as hotels. One-star campsites are fairly basic (and becoming increasingly rare these days as owners strive to improve amenities, gain extra stars and attract more custom), but two-star sites (the most numerous) generally provide a reasonable level of comfort. Municipal sites, often found on the edge of towns and villages, usually fall into this category, though there are some that reach for higher gradings. Three and four stars usually mean a degree of luxury, often extending to first-class restaurants and beautifully landscaped swimming pools.
     The main tourist areas cater well for campers and you can usually find a good choice of campsites, though in the peak holiday period of July and August booking is strongly recommended, especially if you’re heading for the coast. Inland sites generally have more space available, and if you do find it impossible to find a pitch along the coast – and it happens at times – just turn inland and you’re sure to find one. It probably won’t be that far from a beach either.
     Even though France has some magnificent mountain scenery in the Alps and Pyrenees, plus some beautiful rivers like the Loire and Dordogne, most campers head for the coast. And there’s a lot of it in France, particularly in the west. From the Straits of Dover, around the Cotentin and Brittany peninsulas and along the Bay of Biscay to the Spanish border there are mile after mile of fabulous coastal scenery, magnificent sandy beaches and fascinating towns and villages, all just waiting to be explored. And within easy reach of it all there are many hundreds of superb campsites at which to stay.
     If you take the short-sea ferry crossing or the tunnel to Calais, you may not want to hang around long, but if you gently motor south along the coast, you’ll find Boulogne is worth exploring. The upper town is a delight with its basilica and many restaurants, while overlooking the sweeping sands, Nausicaa is one of the finest aquariums you’ll find anywhere. And handily placed is La Bien-Assise, a well-equipped campsite in the grounds of a manor house at Guines, just 10km inland from Calais.
     Farther south, Le Touquet is a once fashionable resort that still retains a high level of popularity because of its beautiful beach and many activities (including sand-yachting). The town sports not one, but two municipal campsites, a basic one-star site not far from the sea and a better-equipped three-star one a little farther away.
     Continue along the Channel and you reach Normandy, a much under-rated region of France. The first major resort, Dieppe, is also a ferry port, linked to Newhaven via a high-speed service which makes the crossing in two hours. Dieppe is to France as Brighton is to England in that it was where seaside holidays began, being nice and handy for Parisians venturing on the new steam railway. Like Brighton, Dieppe has a pebbly beach and an excellent choice of restaurants. It also has a lively market, held every Saturday in the pedestrianised Grande Rue, and overlooking the beach a castle which contains a museum of carved ivory, no longer politically correct perhaps, but a fascinating left-over of those distant days when Dieppe was a major importer of ivory from Africa. A handy place to stay? Try the three-star Camping Vitamin, 3km south on the N27 towards Rouen.
     Between Dieppe and Le Havre, there are several small resorts all with their own campsites. St Aubin and St Valery-en-Caux both have four-star municipal sites, and Fécamp, famous for its Benedictine distillery, has a two-star municipal site. The jewel along this coast, though, must surely be pretty little étretat, squeezed between dramatic chalk cliff formations. The place to stay is a three-star municipal campsite a kilometre from the beach.
     Beyond Le Havre, Honfleur, a delightful spot with medieval high-rise houses lining the harbour’s quays, was where the Impressionist movement became established and some of the artists’ work can be seen in local galleries. There’s no beach worthy of the name here – for that you must go to nearby Trouville and Deauville, as you must also for a much greater choice of campsites. These twin resorts lie either side of the mouth of the River Touques, Trouville the more down-to-earth twin built on the labours of fishing, Deauville its hedonistic sibling, where the well-heeled go to gamble at the casino or on the horses, or rub shoulders with the even richer and more famous at the American Film Festival. Not surprisingly, it’s Trouville that has the sites, two of them, but if you want to be spoiled for campsite choice the coast between Houlgate and Grandcamp-Maisy is the place to be. These are the D-Day beaches and if you spend time in these delightful, peaceful resorts, it is all but impossible to imagine the horrors that were enacted here in June 1944. There are reminders, of course, in the memorials, the museums and the cemeteries, but it seems a world away.
     The wild and rugged Cotentin peninsula has no outstanding resorts, the most notable being Barneville-Carteret and Granville, but there are some attractive fishing villages like St Vaast-la-Hougue and Barfleur, and what claims to be the smallest port in France, Port Racine. There are campsites around the coast here, but expect some of them to be a little exposed.
     At the foot of the peninsula’s west coast is one of the best known sights in France – Mont St Michel. Two or three campsites are within sight of the island-abbey, the nearest being the appropriately named Camping Le Mont St Michel at the end of the causeway across the sands.
     West of Mont St Michel you come to Brittany and within only a few kilometres there’s a complete change of scenery. This is a much wilder coast with rugged cliffs and jagged rocks protruding like teeth from the sea. There are inlets and coves and larger bays, some strewn with rocks, others with delightful beaches of sugar-soft sand. It’s a beautiful, savage coast, the longest of any region in France, and it’s no wonder Brittany also has the highest number of campsites of any region in the country. You’ll need a good campsite guide here to help you make your choice.
     Highlights there are a-many, from the medieval walled town of St Malo, where ferries from England arrive, and Dinard, its neighbour across the Rance, delightfully sprawled around inlets, all the way to La Baule, with its impressive beach and the feeling that this could be a chic resort on the Mediterranean. In between there are attractions like little Erquy; popular Perros-Guirec, set amid the strange shapes of the Pink Granite Coast; Douarnenez, on a sheltered bay and home to the Port Museum, a floating museum of ships and boats associated with the port’s maritime past; Audierne, close to Brittany’s Land’s End, the Pointe du Raz; charming Bénodet; Concarneau, a busy fishing port with a walled centre on an island in the harbour; Carnac and its ancient standing stone alignments; and the strange Gulf of Morbihan with its many islands, some of which are inhabited.
     South of St Nazaire at the mouth of the River Loire, the coastal character changes slowly, with Pornic the last reminder of Breton coastal scapes. Beyond, the inland areas become marshy and are separated from the sea by sand-dunes and pine forests. This is the Vendée, a much favoured area of campers, with resorts like St Jean de Monts, St Hilaire de Riez and Les Sables d’lonne all popular destinations with a wide choice of campsites. Don’t expect a great deal more than an enjoyable beach holiday, however, unless you’re prepared to drive inland a bit.
     Off-shore, the first of three islands, all now connected to the mainland by bridges, comes into view. Camping options on the Ile de Noirmoutier are not extensive, but the bigger Ile de Ré and Ile d’Oléron (France’s second largest island) have many more opportunities. In high season, though, the islands can be very crowded, despite bridge tolls.
     Facing the Ile de Ré, La Rochelle is one of the most charming towns on the west coast of France. The old port is the focus of the town and its streets, lined with 18th century houses, radiate from the quays where colourful boats lie moored. Guarding the harbour entrance are two 14th-century towers between which a chain was slung at night to stop ships entering. It’s around this quarter you’ll find the best restaurants, many serving the succulent oysters that are farmed along the nearby coast. There’s a handful of campsites around La Rochelle, but one that’s close to the beach is Camping Les Chirats-La Platére at Angoulins, just to the south, and there are more at Châtelaillon-Plage.
     South of the Ile d’Oléron and beyond the vast oyster parks of Marennes, is another popular holiday area, centred on the once fashionable resort of Royan at the mouth of the Gironde. The beaches here are wonderful, while a short way north at Palmyre, there’s a zoo that should keep the children happy for a while.
     From Royan there’s a ferry across the Gironde if you want to avoid the long drive via Bordeaux, which has a not unattractive city centre. Whichever way you go, the coast of Aquitaine offers a never-ending playground of sandy beaches backed by sand dunes and pine forests, stretching for 200km, more or less, to Biarritz. Here you can choose between a long-established resort like Arcachon, lying on its huge basin, the only indentation along this coast, or smaller resorts such as Biscarrosse-Plage or Mimizan-Plage. Alternatively, head down one of the quiet lanes to the beach and you can pretty much find a place for yourself. The beaches here are wonderful for children, but take care with the surf – the Atlantic rollers that crash ashore can be awesome. Of course, the great attraction for campers is that there are any number of campsites here, mostly tucked away slightly inland for shelter.
     The drawback for this coast is that if you’re seeking outstanding scenery or culture to go with your camping, it will be in short supply. For that, you should go farther south to the Basque country, Biarritz and beyond. Now somewhat faded since its pre-war days when it was a sort of Atlantic Monte Carlo, Biarritz nevertheless still draws plenty of visitors to its fabulous beaches. Far more attractive, though, is St Jean-de-Luz, close to the Spanish border, a fishing port where tourism is rather more low key. And the town is all the better for it. Both Biarritz and St Jean-de-Luz have a goodly choice of campsites and they have the advantage of being right at the foot of the Pyrenees. When temperatures, or the crowds, become unbearable on the coast, you can just take off for the cooler air of the mountains. That’s a luxury you don’t have farther north.

Further information
     A good campsite guide is worth taking along with you if you haven’t pre-booked your sites. Comprehensive regional guides are available free from the French Government Tourist Office, either to personal callers at 178 Piccadilly, London W1J 9AL, or by phone on 09068 244123 (60p per minute all times). There are also some good commercial guides such as Michelin’s Guide Camping Caravaning France, available at good bookshops here, or the Guide Officiel Camping Caravaning, published by the Fédération Française de Camping et de Caravaning and available at bookshops in France. Both are updated annually.

     If you don’t want to carry all your own camping equipment, there are a number of British companies offering fully-equipped luxury tents already erected at prime locations in western France. Among the leading operators are Eurocamp (Tel: 01606 787878), Canvas Holidays (Tel: 08709 022022), EuroSites (Tel: 0870 751 0000) and Keycamp (Tel: 0870 7000 123).

• Photographs © by John Lloyd

About the Author
     John Lloyd is a freelance editor and travel writer/photographer and has contributed to numerous travel guides on France, including the Illustrated Guide to France, Walks and Tours in France and Secret France (all published by the AA), France The Versatile Guide (Duncan Peterson), The Insite Guide to Normandy and On the Road Around Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley (Thomas Cook). He currently edits Camping Magazine.