Rustic camping in France (Verdon and south coast)

[thisfalseinsight]

We've had our tent for a few years and generally only do weekend trips in the UK. This summer we're thinking of taking two weeks to drive through France down to the south coast. I'm not sure what this would involve but maybe a couple of days to drive to the Verdon gorges for 5 days or so of camping, then down to the south coast for another week near the beach.

The thing is, I don't really want to camp in a holiday park full of campervans - I'm looking for more rustic sites where you might not have three swimming pools - but where you can have a campfire. We'd still like some basic facilities like showers, though! Do sites like this exist? Can anyone recommend specific ones?

Also we were thinking of going from roughly 11-25 August, but I'm a bit worried that I've left it too long to book something like this. I've also heard that we'd have better luck if we were to go for the two weeks starting on 18 Aug - is that right?

Thanks very much for any advice anyone can offer!

You may find it harder to find sites which allow fires the further south you go, due to the increased risk of forest fires/large scale fires.

Try this site using the search terms that appeal to you most. I have also use this site You could also try cool camping. Also think about municipal sites. It's less likely that sites like these will be booked up, especially towards the latter end of your dates.

The only sites I can personally recommend that might appeal are les Valades and montfreville

We stayed near the Gorge Du Verdon last year in Castellane, beautiful place. I don't remember seeing any small sites as any flatish land is at a premium as you can imagine. There won't be anywhere down there that will allow campfires as fires are a massive massive risk, they don't even allow BBQ's (only gas ones). It can get stupidly hot in the daytime, temperatures drop rapidly at night though.