Boggy, clumpy ground. A light mist of rain that has been finding its way in every direction since late morning. A long walk in across open moor, carrying everything on your back. Grabbing a small orange trowel to try and dig a hole out of the peat to do your business…

As someone who got to know camping in Scotland, that’s been much of my experience in my life of camping. And to be honest it was a lot of my expectation of this trip too. When I’d put together a budget, I hadn’t accounted for us spending anything on the many nights we planned to camp. But it’s okay – the campsites don’t cost much, we’ve paid as little as €9 and as much as €17 to stay.

So camping in France has been something of a surprise so far!

Most of the campsites we’ve visited so far have clearly been mostly catering for the many campervans and caravans that fill most of the sites. Many number plates from France, but also many from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium (even though we’re quite far from the borders still), and a handful from the UK, Swiss and Italy.

But also, especially along the Loire, they have had a small, but focussed and dedicated area for welcoming cyclists. One of our favourite campsites so far (Lac du Palinge) put all the cyclists away behind a hedge from the camper van families – meant a longer trip to the loo in the night, but plenty of peace and quiet. At least until we were woken by the Charolais cows returning from milking, happily mooing the last sleepy cyclists awake. Each campsite (carefully demarcated of course) had its own table, a mini-pergola, a nice wooden structure to lean the bikes against, and crucially a pair of power outlets. Water tap was shared with our neighbours.

But above all the surprises have been the camping luxuries… Each campground has a ‘sanitary block’ with hot showers, toilets (although many of them are bring your own toilet paper, and some appear to be bring your own toilet seat), and cubicles for washbasins. I’ve stood by women fixing their hair and makeup carefully in these blocks – some with their own hairdryers! Wild!

Also most campsites have some sort of common area, or at least plug sockets in the bathroom to charge your devices. There’s been at least one evening were we’ve taken refuged in the common room to escape the weather and eat our food, and charge our phones, garmin and battery pack – usually in this order.

But above all, it’s the food options that are the most astounding to me. Some campsites have a drink and snacks bar on site. Others arrange for a food truck to be stationed nearby. We’ve had steak on a hot rock, followed by dessert (at one of our favourites, Lac du Palinge), with had a cheese board that was nicer than we can get at home near Saumur, we had breakfast – bread, jam, tea, coffee and juice served in Saint-Florent-Le-Vieil.

Last night we camped between a canal and river Doubs near Orchamps, there was no food available- we made ravioli in our jet boil kettle, but there was a ‘sanitary block’ complete with showers – for all of €9. We spent the evening watching kingfishers and European bee eaters fly over the river.

So all in all, a very happy camper in France. The trowel has stayed unused in the pannier pocket. As a further aside – excellent public toilet provision and drinking water taps, even in the smallest towns and villages in France. Another example of the functioning municipal governments here, somewhat different to home – but that’s probably another blog!