Summer Holidays: how to travel sustainably in France?

 “Travelling sustainably in France is easy!”. But the first recommendation is to travel off-season... So, during the summer, how to still travel “sustainably”? No worries, there is time to do it... 

Time to travel

First, you can use what is called “soft transport”. As the website dedicated to tourism in France explains, “if you thoroughly question your needs, by thinking about your means of transport and consumption onsite, you considerably reduce the impact of your travel on the planet”. So, you need to “take your time to travel”.

And it’s particularly easy in France: inside the country’s borders, the national rail network is “particularly handy and developed”. On the SNCF portal, you can plan your itinerary with TGVs (high speed train) linking together major cities and the TERs (regional “regular” trains) for short trips between medium-sized cities.

Other less expensive solution: you can travel for much cheaper with buses, although it takes longer, in France and to Europe (with for example BlaBlaCar Bus or FlixBus, the two leading private companies). And you can also use carpooling, which has “much spread in France” and “allows for pooling costs during travels while meeting people”.

Experiencing soft travels

And besides long travels to go from one point to another during your stay, says Explore France, “the French territory is particularly adapted to soft short travels experiences” on a bike, on foot, on horseback, on donkey back, there’s a solution for everyone!”. For bikes, there are 22,800 km of “bike roads and green paths” in France, 5,500 km of regional tourism travels and 3,000 road and mountain bike paths! A dedicated website, France Vélo Tourisme, “invites you to change your pace and travel on bike during a weekend or all your holidays”.

Hiking is also the “best way to walk”. France doesn’t lack, “hiking roads, coast lines, sand dunes on the ocean, and small countryside roads”. And with 180,000 km of marked paths, including 65,000 km of long-distance footpath (GR in French), France “put its big shoes on”!

Accommodation respecting nature

To travel “sustainably”, you also have to take care of your accommodation. In terms of accommodation, Explore France recommends to check for Ecogîtes logos, a quality seal by Gîtes de France, or Gîte Panda, another brand of Gîtes de France, built in collaboration with WWF (world fund for nature), two quality seals ensuring ecological accommodation modes.

Besides quality seal and traditional accommodation, it’s easy to find accommodation respecting nature, says Explore France. The Moovert platform, an eco-responsible booking platform offers to live a new tourist, authentic and responsible experience. This site lists a selection of holiday accommodation in several regions of France that pay particular attention to electricity consumption, water supply and local produce....  

Local, seasonal produce

Speaking of “local produce”, France may be the country of gastronomy, but it’s not limited to Michelin-starred restaurants!

The tourism website explains that it’s easy to “choose local and seasonal food”, by doing your own shopping using a “fresh fruit and vegetable timetable” made by an interprofessional association that provides information on seasonal fruit and vegetables throughout France.

Explore France points out that France is “teeming” with small-scale producers, even in the major cities. So “get into the habit of shopping in the many producers’ shops dotted around the country, or at the markets: almost every village in France has its own”. There’s even a website, Jours de Marché referencing all the dates of market days in most French towns. 

Different, protected destinations

And if you haven’t quite decided on your exact holiday destination yet, why not get off the beaten track? Aside from the world-famous main tourist routes, the official tourism website recommends “venturing to more confidential sites” to find “hidden gems that sometimes owes them nothing”.

With this in mind, when choosing a seaside resort, Explore France advises opting for a Pavillon Bleu, a quality seal that “rewards resorts that implement a sustainable tourism policy”. The same goes for mountain resorts, with the Flocon Vert quality seal validating “social, cultural and environmental commitments, particularly in relation to resource management” in the mountains. Finally, in France, part of the territory is protected: 11 National Parks, 300 Nature Reserves and 58 Regional Nature Parks are ready to welcome you in the purest respect for nature!

A national strategy to manage tourist flows

Announced on 19 June, a new government plan aims to preserve “the balance between local attractiveness and the protection of places and their biodiversity”. In France, 80% of tourist activity is concentrated in 20% of the country, and “visitor peaks” are quickly reached in some areas during the tourist season. According to the World Tourism Organisation, this is also an issue at international scale: 95% of the world’s tourists visit less than 5% of the Earth’s surface.

“Tourism must be the driving force of the long-term sustainable growth of our country”. These are the words used by the minister in charge of tourism to present his programme, which in term should help “discover less famous sites of the French cultural heritage and incite tourists to discover more confidential, but just as interesting locations”.

To know more:
- about the national strategy to manage tourist flows
-  check out websites listed by Explore France, the official website for tourism in France, which offers many ways to travel sustainably in France:

Useful links: 

- SNCF 
- BlaBlaCar 
- FlixBus
- Carpooling (list made by the French ministry of ecological transition)
- France Vélo Tourisme
- Fédération française de la randonnée
- Gîtes de France
- Moovert
- Vegetables of the season 
- Market days in France 
- Pavillons bleus (certified beaches) 
- Flocons verts (certified mountain sites) 
- National parks