Walking & Camping Holidays in France
Last year, when planning our annual vacation, my husband suggested a self catering holiday which combined walking and camping in France. I have to admit that initially, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the idea having been on several self catering holidays before. The thought of long, hard marches, carrying a heavy rucksack full of kit on my back, definitely did not appeal. However after giving the idea some more thought, my hubby and I came up with an ideal solution. Instead of walking long distances from one camp-site to the next, we’d choose a single location as our base, and do shorter hikes in the vicinity.
When our holiday finally arrived, we took a flight to Perpignan airport in the Languedoc region of France. We then used a local taxi service to take us to the camping site, where we’d booked a comfortable cabin for the duration of our stay. Normally my husband would drive us over to France from the UK for our holidays or hire a car, but as I don’t have a licence this can be fairly tiring for him, so we decided this time we’d focus on exploring the area we were staying in, on foot.
We’d selected a camping site in Argeles, as this would give us ample opportunities to take interesting walks, in the mountainous countryside and on the attractive coastline, as well as in the historic villages of the area. Our first day was spent settling down and deciding on an itinerary of walks, then on day two, it was time to lace up our hiking boots, pack a picnic, camera and maps and get walking.
Although I am not what you’d describe as a “gym-bunny” I do stay reasonably active in my daily life, as does my husband, who plays football with his mates at weekends. We didn’t want to over-do it by choosing walks beyond our ability so we decided to follow the well marked routes listed on a topographical map of the area. Available at Argeles-sur-mer tourist information office, the map lists 9 walking trails, of varying difficulty and lengths. This allowed us to choose which walk to take depending on how energetic we were feeling and what the weather forecast was showing.
Over the course of our two week walking and camping holiday, we completed all of the walks featured on the map, discovering the local fauna and flora, as well as testing the typical cuisine of the area in restaurants and bars we found along the way. We found that in comparison to our usual holidays, staying in a hotel or bed and breakfast, our camping holiday gave us a greater sensation of freedom, and helped us to see an authentic side to France which we had not seen elsewhere.
For anyone considering a walking and camping holiday in France, we’d highly recommend giving it a try. My best tip is to spend a little extra on your accommodation – there is nothing quite as nice as being able to relax under a hot shower after walking all day, and being able to stretch out on a sofa was a real bonus that you definitely wouldn’t get in a tent.
