French heatwave whilst camping - cancel?

[Worryingmama]

Hi all,

Advice needed. We’re supposed to be camping in northern Ardeche next week. It’s now due to be about 39 degrees. The campsite is in forest so will have some shade, but is still going to be totally scorching.

We’ll have our 4 year old and our 8 year old with us. Would you still go? Worried this level of heat is actually going to be dangerous.

Has anyone camped with little ones in similar temps - and if so do you have any advice?

Thank you!

Can I come with you? Sounds bloody lovely!!! The trees will give plenty of shade - yourll be fine.

a shaded site will be ok. Will you have electricity at your pitch? We stayed in a very hot campsite in Provence and they rented us a fridge, which was brilliant. Could also have plugged a fan in, I suppose, but it was ok at night.

What are the forecast nighttime temperatures? That matters more I think

Agree that nighttime temperature matters most - can you sleep at night without air conditioning?

We stayed on a site near Bordeaux about 3 years ago during a heat wave - it got to about 43 degrees during the day.
It was dry heat- so not the muggy, humid heat we get here and did get cooler at night once the sun went down. It wasn’t that bad at all. We did have a fan to keep the air moving and made sure we had a shaded outdoor area.

Shaded areas were fine and we stayed outdoors as much as possible. The pool was open until 8pm each night, and we usually stayed until they kicked us out!

We kept drinks in the fridge and stayed hydrated.

It was the most brilliant holiday.

DD and SiL went camping in France during a heat wave a couple of years ago. They found it fine but did invest in a mobile camping air conditioner/cooling thing. So worth looking on amazon or similar I think. They had electric hook up at the sites they chose.

Really helpful, thanks all. Night temperatures will be 19/20 so manageable. It is more what on earth we’re going to do in the daytime! But sounds like others have found manageable.. A portable air con unit is a great idea - looking into that…

I live just south of where you're going, it'll be fine so long as temperatures go down over night. I'd recommend buying/bringing a fan to plug in. And lots of anti mosquito spray 😬

No! It’ll be lovely.

A shaded, forest campsite will be fine - we've been on one in similar temperatures and it was lovely, and I'm not a fan of high temperatures at all. We even managed some lovely forest walks.

Also, a trip to the air conditioned supermarket in the day was a bit treat - top tip (courtesy of south of France camping trips with my Dad) - when you get to the supermarket stick one of the big bottles of orangina in one of their freezers - it is then lovely and cold by the time you've finished the shop!

We've camped in the Ardeche a lot, with temperatures regularly around 40 degrees, and as long as you have some shade it's fine. Assuming your campsite has a pool, spend time there or visit the lovely little villages and go river swimming, lot of places have roped off swimming areas in the rivers. The Ardeche is amazing, enjoy!

I once spent the summer camping in the south of France and we had a period of high temperatures like this. I wouldn’t cancel, but certainly there were nights that the tent was quite hot!

Also there were wildfire warnings banning bbqs in woodland areas. This might affect you more significantly if you need that to cook? We had a little gas hob and grill within the large tent so wasn’t an issue for us.

Get some UV swim vests, hats, SF50 and live in the swimming pool!

Ah yes fires, the campsite will let you know what the rules are (currently no outdoor fires allowed) some sites have their own big communal BBQs in a 'safe' area that you can use. I would recommend having an emergency bag to grab just in case you are evacuated (very unlikely but it's better to be safe than sorry). Honestly it's really lovely here at the moment (and today was the hottest day of the week apparently). The supermarket trip to cool down is a great idea, the vast majority of shops and indoor places have a/c now.

Am really surprised at people saying this will be "lovely". 39 degrees is not hot, it is extreme heat and dangerous for more than short periods. At this temperature fans/breeze does not help. Small children and elderly people are especially vulnerable and being outdoors all the time means no respite. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/seasonal-health/heatwave-how-to-cope-in-hot-weather/

Is there no water nearby you can splash around in?

We’re in the Ardèche right now, albeit in a cute, and it’s already heating up and hit 36 yesterday and getting hotter today.

Other advice is great. Use water, use shade, go to cafes, drink plenty of water. Visit some of the amazing Grottes on the area. Make sure the kids have hats.

We’ve been river swimming, plonking our stuff under shady trees and it’s been great. You should have an amazing time.

I’m not sure id go tbh . That’s very hot for small children and imo a holiday shouldn’t be spent dodging the heat , it should be relaxing and doing what you want when you want .

If you do visit and grottes take a light jumper, it's 14⁰ underground.

If there's a nearby pool/river and the night time temps are around 20 I think it sounds heavenly. Take a flexible builders bucket with handles to sit the kids in and pack a couple of hammocks to string from trees. Have fun!

If you did cancel, how much would you lose? But equally, how much would you spend whilst you are there on holiday, including petrol and the aircon unit? What are individual heat tolerances in your family? People are very different in that respect.

It will be lovely. That temp there is not as bad as 31 degrees here.

Yeah OK so perhaps not, we're heading for the worst heatwave on record from tomorrow for at least a week with temperatures in the low 40s. If you can still cancel, I would.

Yeah it is looking incredibly hot… too late to cancel but we’ve booked a few nights in the mountains near Clermont Ferrand as respite if we need it.

Just make sure you all stay hydrated and out of the sun between 12 and 4. It's more managing to sleep at night that will be the problem, as I've already said you'll definitely need an electric fan, add to that a spray can of Evian (or any water) and you should be OK.
Sorry reread that and realised I sound somewhat patronising 😅, that wasn't the aim, I was born and raised in England but have been living in the Gard (on the border with the Ardeche) for almost 30 years and have had time to acclimatise but I do still remember what it's like coming over for the summer holidays as a teenager!