guide
Yes, you can camp in November, but not everywhere and not in the same way: tent and caravan pitches very often close on 31 October, while chalets, mobile homes and some mountain or southern campsites keep welcoming guests. To help you choose, we have gone through what our campsite pages show, month by month: announced dates, shoulder-season closures and activities actually mentioned. Only campsites rated “verified” (off-season opening confirmed by a source) are presented as open.
Of the 511 campsites in our selection, 221 have confirmed off-season opening. Reading their announced closures, a calendar emerges: October is cited 36 times, November 32 times, March 25 times, December 15 times, January 7 times and February 6 times (one campsite can cite several months). In other words, the real dip falls in autumn and at the very start of winter. February, on the other hand, is rarely a closing month: most confirmed campsites that reopen in December do not list February among their closures.
A useful reminder: among these 221 campsites, 139 announce no closure, 48 close their pitches for part of the winter and 34 have a short shoulder-season closure. The details are in our article on campsites open in winter. Here, we look at the calendar.
A word on climate. Normal temperatures and rainfall vary widely from one weather station to another, from the Mediterranean coast to the Pyrenean valleys. Rather than generalise, check the climate normals from Météo-France for the station closest to the campsite you have in mind: they give temperatures, rainfall and sunshine month by month. We therefore give no climate figures here.
October is the last “easy” month. Many pitches stay open until 31 October: Domaine de Trémelin, in Ille-et-Vilaine, welcomes pitch guests from 1 April to 31 October, with gîtes and mobile homes open all year; Les Araucarias, in the Oise, works on the same pattern. In the Pyrénées-Orientales, on the other hand, several high-altitude campsites use October to close: Les Jardins d’Estavar (October), Mas Piques (15 to 31 October) or Le Puigmal, ahead of the ski season.
As for activities, our pages mainly cite vineyards and autumn nature: tastings with the winemakers of Savennières near La Bradière (Maine-et-Loire), mushroom picking in the Chaux forest from Camping de l’Île (Jura), mushrooms and forest walks in autumn at Huttopia Arcachon. At Camping de Mon Village, in the Gironde, the village organises a walk and a pétanque tournament for Octobre Rose (breast cancer awareness month) in October, plus a Halloween evening. The deer rut is cited by Camping municipal de l’Altier, in the Lozère, which rents chalets all year (pitches from 15 June to 15 September).
All Saints (Toussaint) is when families rediscover camping. This refers to the French school holidays: the exact dates depend on the official calendar of the French Ministry of Education (Éducation nationale), which we invite you to check before booking, and we do not reproduce them here. The same applies to the Christmas and winter holidays below, which are also French school holidays. What our pages do show is that southern campsites gear up for this period. Mas des Lavandes, in Sérignan, in the Hérault, opens its restaurant and grocery shop for All Saints and offers a kids’ club with a Halloween programme, 15 minutes’ walk from the beaches of Valras. La Brise de Camargue, in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, announces a kids’ club during the autumn holidays and stays open until 13 November in 2026.
Further north, the formula is rental accommodation: La Bradière cites Terra Botanica, 15 minutes away, during the All Saints holidays, and Ferme de La Tournerie, in the Manche, offers a farm visit with an afternoon snack on Thursdays during the October holidays. For a solid-roofed rental at this time of year, our mobile homes page is a good starting point.
This is the most frequently asked question: where can you camp in November? The month piles up closures. At Camping Le Dauphin, on Oléron, the campsite closes on 6 November in 2026 and only the motorhome area stays open. At La Brise de Camargue, the closure runs from 14 November to 17 December. At So de Prous, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, from 12 November to about 19 December. Les Deux Glaciers, in Chamonix, closes from 1 November to 15 December, and Le Bois Guillaume, in the Yonne, closes its pitches from mid-November to mid-March.
So where to go? Three leads emerge from our pages.
For motorhome travellers, the Dauphin area or that of Camping municipal La Chesnaie, in the Sarthe, stay open all year (the sanitary facilities of this area are closed from October to April). Our article on motorhome travel in winter goes into this choice in detail.
A trap to know about: at Camping des Gayeulles, in Rennes, the toilet and shower blocks close as early as 2 November, and a winter stay remains possible in a motorhome or a caravan with its own sanitary facilities. An “open” campsite is not always a “complete” campsite.
December splits in two. In early December, mountain campsites reopen for the ski season: La Mousquère, in the Aure valley, opens its heated mobile homes around 1 December and cites the free shuttle to Saint-Lary, the winter pig festival and the torchlight descent on 25 December; Les Deux Glaciers reopens on 15 December, with a New Year’s Eve dinner in the campsite restaurant.
In the lowlands, Christmas markets shape the offer: Camping municipal La Chesnaie cites the one at Marigné-Laillé on 12 December 2026, and La Bradière the troglodyte one at Doué-en-Anjou, 18 km away. But beware of year-end closures: Camping municipal l’Étang, in Ille-et-Vilaine, closes for Christmas and New Year’s Eve; Les Peupliers, in the Hérault, from 22 December to 4 January; Ferme de La Tournerie from 21 December to 4 January. Conversely, La Brise de Camargue reopens from 18 December to 3 January. For a Christmas at a campsite, call in the autumn.
January is the month of the ski resorts. Mountain campsites are the obvious choice: Hautacam, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, keeps its pitches open all year, at the foot of the resort (skiing, rail luge) and near the thermal spas of Beaucens and Argelès-Gazost. L’Imprévu, in the Isère, gives access to Chamrousse and the 7 Laux, with the Uriage thermal spa ten minutes away.
Spa cures are the other reason to travel in winter: Domaine des Poteries, in the north, offers cure packages for Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. And Le Floréal cites, in January, the regattas of the Palavas nautical challenge. Beware at the start of the year: some campsites close just after 1 January (Ferme de La Tournerie reopens on 5 January, La Brise de Camargue between 4 January and about 5 February).
Few confirmed campsites close in February (only 6 mentions out of 221), and those that do say so: at L’Étang de La Fougeraie, in the Nièvre, the rentals have an annual closure in February. For the rest, the offer is rich, especially during the French school holidays, whose calendar is published by the Ministry: we do not give it here. In the mountains, demand is at its peak and you need to book very early.
Elsewhere, low season brings pleasant surprises. At Les Cercelles, on Oléron, the indoor pool remains open during the winter school holidays. In Corsica, the Riva Bella thalasso centre runs from Friday to Monday from February to early April. And in Ghyvelde, the farm inn (ferme auberge) next to PRL Hooghe Moote announces a Valentine’s Day menu. Campsites with an indoor pool are a good filter for a family stay.
March is the month of reopenings, staggered over time: Camping Le Dauphin reopens on 21 March, the pitches at Camping des Bondons, in Seine-et-Marne, are priced from 17 March (the rentals stay open all year), those at Le Bois Guillaume resume in mid-March. But many others wait for April or May: Domaine de Trémelin on 1 April, Les Forges, in the Landes, keep pitches and motorhome spaces open all year, while their bungalows only reopen on 11 May.
The rule, then, is to check the type of accommodation concerned. In March, rentals are almost always available, tent and caravan pitches much less so. Between the last ski days and the first walks, it is a good time for a long weekend.
| Month | Where to look | Examples of verified campsites |
|---|---|---|
| October | Countryside and vineyards, pitches until 31 October | Domaine de Trémelin, Camping de l’Île, La Bradière |
| All Saints | South, rentals with a kids’ club | Mas des Lavandes, La Brise de Camargue |
| November | Languedoc, Corsica, the north in low season, motorhome areas | Le Floréal, Domaine de Riva Bella, PRL Hooghe Moote |
| December and Christmas | Mountains from the start of the month, Christmas markets in the lowlands | La Mousquère, Les Deux Glaciers, La Chesnaie |
| January | Ski resorts, spas, the south | Hautacam, L’Imprévu, Domaine des Poteries |
| February | Mountains, heated rentals, indoor pool | Les Cercelles, Domaine de Riva Bella |
| March | Gradual reopenings, rentals first | Camping des Bondons, Le Dauphin, Les Forges |
To go further by region, see our pages on Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Pays de la Loire, where the confirmed campsites are concentrated.
Several campsites offer long off-season stays: the Saone Valley one, for example, announces long-stay promotions from January to March and from late September to November. We do not quote prices, which vary from one campsite to another: ask for the low-season rate by phone.
For a stay of several weeks, also read our article on living all year at a campsite or in a mobile home; for the mountains, winter camping (caravaneige in France); and for equipment, winter camping, the practical guide.
