Packrafting in France

Hello,

Is somebody packrafting in france in this forum ? Where is your favorite trip ?

Hi Bastyen,

welcome to the Europe section of packrafting :slight_smile: This side of the atlantic has plenty to offer. I ve been to France a lot (Voges, Massif central), but all in pre packraft era :frowning:

Where is yours about in France? Maybe the guys from neigbouring Belgium and Switzerland can be an option.

I am Germany based, but I ve herad of the french doing fun stuff, the most prominent is the Madagaskar expedion (http://www.makaynature.org/)

Have you done any trips so far? Would be interessting to see. I try to cover the European scene on our Blog, you might know already (http://www.packrafting.de/2011/08/packrafting-european-scene.html). I will reconnect if I hear of people from your region. Best actually is to develope your own local scene :wink: At least that is what I faced, when I got my first raft in 2008 as the only one. Now we already have a small community.

Sven

Scotland is not far away from France!

I just come back from a year in canada, where i was doing outdoor stuff.

I cycle in france because there is quite a lot of awesome place to ride but I am planning to buy a packraft and wanted to know if there was a french group. France is not like in scotland and we have a big history of mountain, trail , cycling but wilderness area were we can conbine walking/cycling and paddling is not our strongest point.

But as i just spend the last 4 years of my life abroad, so i forgot a lot about my own country so I really want to rediscover my country in a different way. I am quite sure there is amazing placing to walk and paddle or bike and paddle but looking for ideas.

I live in ardeche and it’s quite beautifoul scenary here.


bastien

If you live in the Ardeche bastien, then I think you’re very close to the best of it.
Ardeche of course, (we did it last summer from Les Vans on the Chassezac to St Martin).

When I think of all the classic rivers I’ve done in the Massif over the years with my IKs, I’d love to go back with the Alpacka and do them all again!

If you like it ‘sportif’ I think the Upper Allier from Chapeauroux would be fun - all doable with trains and buses, and if you bikeraft it you can get around the reservoir halfway along.

There are some pix and maps here, and for those that can’t track French paddling websites so well, this is a great book for easy Massif rivers, full of ideas and rapid-by-rapid detail.

Chris S

la bonne vie

Hi!
I live in Paris but I’m not against going away on the weekends.
Also if you want to test your skills in a safe environment you can try white water parks. They are quite many in France.
I went to one in Chateauneuf-sur-Cher which is quite small but cheap and very central (and close to my hometown :slight_smile: )
Cheers!
Mathieu

don’t know about ardenne but you should check out this blog!

Awesome Packrafting trips, this one is in France.