I’ve looked through a few photos, and tried racking my brains but it’s actually difficult for me to remember!
Here’s a brief recap of what I can remember:

• Around the big cities there’s no change you could wild camp (you wouldn’t want to either!) In La Rochelle and Biarritz we stayed in camp sites.
• If you manage to camp somewhere near Les Grands Dunes (near Sanguinet) you’ll be amazed. Massive sand dunes that you absolutely have to visit
• Mimizan Plage just down the road from here was a great camp spot for us
• The Pyrenees (slightly off the coast) between France and Spain were great for wild camping

Have fun, I’m pretty jealous!

I plan on htich-hiking down through France to Southern Spain, and will hopefully be using couchsurfing and hospitalityclub as resources, however I will also be taking a tent for wild-camping.

Out of interest, I was wondering whether you could recommend or point out any specific places, particularly on the Western side of France.

Thanks again, Jack

I’m glad you’ve found this site helpful!
I definitely think your best bet is to just jump in the car and drive! If you have a rough route of where you’d like to go and what you’d like to see then that is definitely a good thing.
If you plan on sleeping in the VW (as I’m sure you are) then finding “wild camping” spots should be even easier. Most ‘pique-nique’ areas would be fine. You’d have the advantage of being able to move on instantly if anybody has any problems (unlikely they will though).

Of course, speaking French is always a bonus! You can then ask locals for good places to stay (they’re always helpful) and it may help you get out of any sticky situations!

I hope you have a great time.

I agree that you should think about looking for places ‘far away from civilisation’. This is what we did and were never pestered. There was one night (one of the first) where we were all a bit scared — a car turned up at about 1am and shone the lights right at the tent. We had no idea what to do! Turns out is was just some more wild campers turning up very late in the night to the picnic spot we were using.

Pay the £10/€20 or so if you’re worried, but if you want the adventure or have done it before and know the ropes, Wild Camping is fine!

We did find a good wild camping spot in Mimizan-Plage, just outside Bordeaux.
Since Bordeaux is quite build-up and busy, I don’t think you’d find anywhere too close to it for camping.

If you haven’t already considered it, the thing I’d recommend the most just outside Bordeaux is the ‘Dune du Pilat’. Stunning!
Although we didn’t camp there, it was also quite a good forested area, so I think it would be quite good for wild camping.

I did do some WOOFing on a farm just outside Les Arcs Draguignan though – not too far from Nice. If you’re interested it WOOFing, it may be something to consider.

Otherwise, I’d just follow my suggestions in my previous comment.