Rules · country
France: bivouac, camping and the national park rules
The short answer
France distinguishes bivouac from camping, and the distinction decides what is legal. Bivouac means one night, a small tent or none at all, pitched in the evening and gone in the morning, leaving nothing behind. In national park core zones it is allowed only in designated spots and generally only between 19:00 and 09:00. Camping proper, meaning a pitch you settle into, is a different thing and is not permitted in the same places.
Source: Le bivouac, Portail des parcs nationaux de France ↗ Checked 2026-07-19
What we have not verified
- Each national park sets its own detail, and the authorised spots and exact hours vary between them. We have not yet checked every park's own regulation individually, so treat the 19:00 to 09:00 window as the general pattern rather than a guarantee for a specific park.
If you take one thing from this page, take the vocabulary. French rules turn on the difference between bivouac and camping, and an English speaker who treats them as the same word will break the rules while believing they are following them.
What bivouac means
The national parks portal defines it tightly. Bivouac is a single night, under the stars or in a small tent you cannot stand up in. You arrive in the evening, you leave in the morning, and you leave no trace: no rubbish, no food scraps.
It is explicitly not: daytime, motorised in any form, spread over several nights in the same place, or spread out into a camp with a large tent, an awning, a table and chairs.
Where and when
Park regulations bite in the core zones. In the surrounding adhesion areas bivouac is generally allowed unless the local commune has decided otherwise, which is a real caveat rather than a formality. Nearly all the parks work to a 19:00 to 09:00 window.
Three places are simply out: bivouac is not available in Port-Cros, Porquerolles or the Calanques.
Why the rule exists
A national park frames night-time human presence in its core to protect the wildlife and the landscape. The rules are strict because the alternative, at the volumes these parks now see, is visible damage.
If you are in a vehicle
Then none of the above applies to you, and what you want is an aire. France has thousands of them, many free, and they are the intended answer for motorhome travellers.