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Comment by nonethewiser | Hacker News Reader

For others who didn’t know bivouac is camping without any sort of tent or shelter. In terms of doing a long hike this seems completely unrealistic because you can’t rule out bad weather.

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> For others who didn’t know bivouac is camping without any sort of tent or shelter.

Well that's not correct as far as the subject of the article goes. In France at least the term also covers camping in an light tent.

Thanks for clarifying, that is not what the definitions I found via Google said

I can confirm that Google is wrong in this case. Sleeping outside without a tent is generally referred to as “dormir à la belle étoile”, but it is not necessarily implied in “bivouac”.

From my experience (which varies, the rules are local and not nation-wide laws) the difference is whether you can stand in your tent or not. I have seen whether you can carry your tent with your backpack used as a criterion as well.

No, you can use a tent, as long as you don't stay more than one night.

This might sound like a daft question but is a bivi bag allowed?

If (as the name would imply) it is then it’s not so bad.

Lots of long distance cyclists use this approach in areas where camping is not strictly allowed.

Personally I prefer a lightweight tent but hve thought about getting a supplementary bivibag for stealth.

Either way this route looks magic.

EDIT: having read the page on the site “bivouacking” looks pretty permissive. Since all the pictures show small tents that all looks vey sensible and better that we have in England and Wales (Scotland is very permissive too).

If it rains, I think there's 0 chance that anyone would blink if you put up a tarp for additional shelter.

You're also more likely than not a stone's throw from a cheap municipal campsite that at least has a restaurant attached to it with a Michelin Star. This is France, after all!

There are only 632 Michelin starred restaurants in France, and it is only the 6th most-dense country for such establishments. So no, probably not a stones throw away. Still, probably a great boulangerie to make up for it.

Apparently, Japan is where you want to be if you want to have the lowest average distance to a Michelin restaurant [0]

[0] https://www.chefspencil.com/density-of-michelin-starred-rest...

There's nothing that makes a joke funnier than someone who explains why that joke is statistically unsound.

At your service, with delight!

The actual funny part of it is that campsites in France are actually starred just like Michelin restaurants on their maps (and on their signs - France of course loves to over-sign everything). A 3 star municipal campsite could be 40 Euros for the night!

One of the reasons I spent so many nights in apple orchards.

There you go. That's why if I choose to go on a long distance hike it will be in the US rather than France.

Here's one 6km away from camping

https://goo.gl/maps/muFXPTy9okhex6U48

Here's one 3km away,

https://goo.gl/maps/Qe3QHtKzo6BQ9Hiz9

< 3km,

https://goo.gl/maps/QRob7cDWYZ2ufuQi6

2.3km

https://goo.gl/maps/3kotrgfmjUT4kERbA

I'm sure we can find one closer, but <10km seems to be not out of the ordinary.

France is 643,801km^2 (that number may include some departments not physically part of "Metropolitan France"). If they were uniformly distributed, 632 restaurants would be 1 per 1018km^2. A land area of 1018km^2 is actually a box about 32km per side, and so on average, a restaurant and a campground would be about 16km apart.

So ... you're not far off.

IFFFFF the restaurants were evenly distributed. They almost certainly are not.

I would think municipal (the kind you find in a town) campsites - the kind you find in a town would be closer to a Michelin starred-restaurant - also usually in a town, then on average when just looking at total area.

Anyways, it's fun to look up things on the Internet I guess, but maybe go and camp in France, and go have some dinner out every once in a while - a little meatspace joie de vivre certainly won't hurt. Usually.

Do they have a Michelin star system for campsites in France as well? With rankings for grass softness and lavatory fragrance?

It's mostly to give you an idea on amenities. Like a 1 star campsite will have Turkish toilets and showers; three stars you'll find swimming pools and mini golf courses. Prices for the night usually correlate with stars in an upward trajectory.

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