There are plenty who camp in a tent in South of France in the summer, hopefully, they will come along soon to offer their advice.
Personally, it is not for me, as anything about 25 degC is considered as too hot.
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Use what the local French campers use. A cheap nylon tent from Decathlon, under £100. You don't need anything special, average summer temps are 25-27deg, 30s is a heatwave.
Yes that is the secret of hot weather camping, a shady pitch under a tree. Pitch location is important, not the tent. Any tent in direct sunlight will be too hot to be inside but you won't be in it during day anyway.
Take a compass to locate sun direction, best is sun in the morning when you get up, it's nice sitting in sun for brekkie before it gets too hot, then shade from midday & afternoon sun then sun again in the evening. You will be very lucky to get such an ideal pitch but go for morning sun & daytime shade, basically.
Most local French campers are not wealthy & Decathlon or supermkt is their only source of tents so they just use cheapest nylon tents. The Dutch have the expensive canvas tents but they use them in Holland as well so really it's just pitch location, tent itself is not that important, the one you use in the UK will do the job.
Quote: Originally posted by Opensauce on 19/2/2016
best is sun in the morning when you get up, it's nice sitting in sun for brekkie before it gets too hot, then shade from midday & afternoon sun then sun again in the evening. You will be very lucky to get such an ideal pitch but go for morning sun & daytime shade, basically.
Nooooo!!! In a tent in the south of France, it's best to position so you're in shade for as long as possible in the mornings, so that the bedrooms stay cool for as late as possible. That position usually means your pitch then gets the last of the sun's rays in the evening; far more enjoyable!
I agree though that Decathlon tents are pretty good for camping in the heat, due to them having no mud flaps or SIGS so there's plenty of ventilation. Which is good until you find yourself in a torrential downpour and you find a stream running through the living area...
You will find one of the most important thing you will need is something that will give you a good spread of shade, there is nothing worse than baking sun and nowhere to shelter
The campsite we were at last July, down near Frejus had a French family that turned up with everything except a Tent!, they just slept out in the open on top of what looked like sleeping bags, quite bizarre I thought but each to there own.
It was quite a contrast to the huge motorhome that was on the pitch next to them.
And I could not but help thinking, that the Tent-less campers were having the best time of it all!
Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 19/2/2016
The campsite we were at last July, down near Frejus had a French family that turned up with everything except a Tent!, they just slept out in the open on top of what looked like sleeping bags, quite bizarre I thought but each to there own.
It was quite a contrast to the huge motorhome that was on the pitch next to them.
And I could not but help thinking, that the Tent-less campers were having the best time of it all!
Post last edited on 19/02/2016 19:12:20
Funny you should say that as, we found it a bit odd when we were on a campsite in the Ardeche a couple of years ago and a young French couple simply strung up hammocks between trees on their pitch and slept in them! It felt a bit odd, having to pass them by on the way to the sanitaires at night (the pitches were two deep adjacent to the river, we were riverside and they were immediately behind us, meaning that we and we had to walk within inches of their hammocks to exit our pitch).
I think it's a case of 'anything goes' for camping in France. Which is probably a good thing.
In France last year we could have done with the sun. We had a shady pitch, i did ask! It gave us shade from 2pm onwards. At lunchtime we were under a tiny tree to give our table and children shade.
We were pleased of our SIG when there was a huge thunderstorm with rain. The decathlon pop up next door nearly floated away. It hit 30 plus degrees hot and sunny and went down to 17 cold and rainy by the next day.
We've camped in the south of France many times with various tents etc, all fine. The only thing we do now is hire a decent sized fridge from site which fits in the awning area and great for cold drinks.
We have camped in various hot places in the height of Summer - France / Spain / Croatia.
True - it does get really hot in the tent, so - in order to avoid heat exhaustion/dehydration you really need to ensure you drink copious amounts of cold beer.
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Topic: Sunny weather tent in the south of France
