Friends and I want to hike through France. I have some questions about it.
So, first some context. I can understand French. English is just easier and faster for me. But don't hesitate if you'd rather answer in French.
We're Belgians, from Ghent. Between the 8th and the 16th of September we'd like to go hiking, with backpacks and tents. We first wanted to go to the Pyrenees, but it seems that's a bit expensive. It's about €120 with the train one-way from Lille to Perpignan ((1) Do any of you know if there are cheaper ways to get to the Pyrenees? (2) Are train tickets more expensive the later you buy them?).
So we had the idea to go to the North of France, starting near the Belgian coast. Some questions:
3) Are there a lot of campings there?
4) What would be an average price for just one night?
5) How is the policy in France about camping outside a camping, so just in the wild? And how strictly is this supervised? I heard one night is allowed.
6) How many grams of weed can you have with you in France? And how strictly is this observed?
7) Could we travel by bus? Is there a busnetwork run by the state? Or which companies could we check out?
8) Any suggestions about where we should go? In Nord-Pas-de-Calais and maybe Normandy. Or even elsewhere in France, if we could get there rather cheaply. Are there popular hiking routes?
Posted Aug 23, 2012, 1:18 PM UTC
I'm from Grenoble so I don't know about the north. But I still can give you some answers.
probably by bus, or hitchhiking
usually yes, but sometime you've got good deal if you buy at last minute.
Campings everywhere \o/
you can camp pretty much everywhere if it is not a private property, but it's just for one night. And when I say one night you have to set your camp at the end of the day and leave by the morning.
Sadly, you can have 0 grams on you. Yet if the cops are Good Guy Cops and you only have 1 or 2 grams they'll destroy it and let you go. But if they want they can annoy you just for 1 gram.
yes, but these are private companies so different in each regions.
Alps are a great place to stay with many beautiful landscapes to see
Thanks a lot!
Great you can camp everywhere. And I'll look for the bus.
The Alps would be great indeed. It's just about getting there. Within Belgiun we can travel very cheaply as students (€5 for a train ticket to anywhere in Belgium). But once outside Belgium, we don't have a lot of option left beside walking, hitchhiking or paying.
Do the cops often go through your stuff to find weed?