Vans, campervans and motorhomes are becoming increasingly popular: “The idea is to travel more often, to sleep anywhere, for less.”

It arrived just in time for the holidays. On July 22, the Bartolomeos received the keys to their Opel Vivaro L2H1, a 2014 model purchased from a dealer for 13,000 euros. A month later, they arrived at the municipal campsite in Sainte-Croix-sur-Verdon (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), with their two daughters, two nieces, and a pile of board games. "The advantage of the van was that we were able to go away as a group of six, which we wouldn't have been able to do with our car," explains Stéphane Bartolomeo, 40, an appliance technician who lives near Saint-Etienne with his wife, a childminder.

Their van is basically furnished – two mattresses, storage, a battery to plug in the cooler. The girls sleep inside, the parents under a Quechua tent next to it. “The turning point came at Easter, when we spent a week in a mobile home in Ardèche. We paid 800 euros, and we said to ourselves, it’s too expensive, we’ll move on.” For this first vacation with the Vivaro, they stop at campsites or areas found on the Park4night app, which lists parking sites, with user comments . “The idea is to be able to go away more often, to be independent, to sleep anywhere for cheap. Even if it’s complicated to go wild camping, you can find a lot of advice on the forums,” continues Stéphane Bartolomeo, who also plans to organize, starting this fall, "a few unusual weekends with my wife." My wife approves.

Here come the new campers: aboard vans, campervans, or motorhomes, crisscrossing France or Europe with Google Maps and community apps, joining those retirees who have long invested in this niche of low-cost nomadic holidays. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of registrations of these new vehicles has jumped in France: +8% during the 2024-2025 season (September 2024-end of August 2025) and +16% the previous year... The second-hand market is in full swing: in one year, in France, 67,000 second-hand motorhomes or vans were registered (compared to 27,000 new ones). The leader, Trigano, which is headquartered in Vendée, announced a 12% increase in turnover in 2024, with net profit up 21%.

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