I'm about to embark on the booking process for my trip at the end of August/beginning of September. I'll be camping, but do I have to book a "Location de Tente" (€10 per night) as well as an "Aire de Bivouac" (€5 pppn)?
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I think that "Location de Tente" means hire of tent and "Aire de Bivouac" means place to pitch tent.
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Hi, French is my native language, so I can probably help you with some translations if you need it. John is correct, in fact "Location de Tente" means "Rent a tent", while "Aire de Bivouac" is the actual place to pitch it. If you don't want to lugg your tent around, but still want the privacy and convinience of one, you can rent one when you get there for €10. These are two person tents, and are in somewhat limited quantities as I understand it.
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Thanks John and Vince, "location" must be one of those faux amis we learned in school many years ago, and promptly forgot. "Je suis plein" is another; I once used it on a school exchange to politely decline a second helping of dinner from my French hosts, only to discover I had unwittingly announced my pregnancy....
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Well, that must be a French thing, since here in Quebec, "Je suis plein" would be the apropriate translation for "I am full". I never heard of it relating to pregnancy... Well, back to the subject at hand, I wrote a message asking how flexible their system was regarding delays because of weather, injury, etc. and actually got a reply! I guess being fluent in french helps. They told me to book dates and pay in advance, but that for tent spaces dates were not as much of an issue since there was always spaces available. At least that is one this less to worry about since I plan to camp most of the time (and use private gites/hotels the rest).
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But did they say anything about delays ? I agree with the statement that there are always spaces available, but I note that the adjective 'suitable' is missing. I noticed that at some huts, latecomers were struggling to find places suitable for pitching tents. The best spots seem to be taken by 'location de tentes'
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The reply was very brief and somewhat vague, and I don't have it here, but it basicaly says that even if I arrive at a date different from my reservation, my payment would be honoured. As for 'suitable', I guess I'll see when I get there. Since I am going end of August, beginning of September, the big rush will probably have started to die down a bit, and hopefully finding good spots for my tent won't be too much of a problem.
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I note there is extra info on the park website. It says you can only reserve nights in refuges using a credit card, If you haven't a reservation you can pay direct at the refuge. So it ain't compulsary to book in advance after all so who is going to bother ?
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Got back from doing the northern section a couple of weeks ago - an amazing holiday - manged it all with no problems despite all my fears - training since January obviously paid off! I think if you are camping then reserving spaces is unnescessary. If you want to stay at the refuge then I think you should book though I know that people who hadn't booked still got in but had to wait until 5.00pm to see if there were spaces.
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 Almighty bump in the rump.
Look to go late August - early September. Currently the website says:
La plateforme de vente en ligne des nuitées en refuge du GR20 sera à nouveau opérationnelle fin mars 2011
http://www.parc-corse.org/
So I guess it's waiting till then. Anyone manage to turn with a tent and just pay?
Will be doing the King's Trail in Easter, and maybe take in some South Downs and Exmoor before jetting off.
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If you are camping then just turn up - if you pay in advance you are in a very tiny minority.
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