Like every year, at the start of the summer holidays, hundreds of thousands of young people will prepare their suitcases (or their backpacks) to go to summer camp.

We commonly call “holiday camp” (this term is no longer legal) stays organized during school holidays for children aged 3 to 17. These stays, without parents, lasting one to three weeks are organized by associations, communities, companies, etc. and supervised by qualified personnel under the responsibility of the State.

These summer camps have existed for almost 150 years. The number of days/children (6-14 years) was increasing until the 1960s-1970s . After that, the summer camps lost opening days and even participants every year.

To facilitate departures and relaunch the dynamic of stays, the “Pass colo” was created in 2024 , financial aid for children aged 11 (born in 2013) ranging from €200 to €350.

The invention of summer camps

Summer camps were born at the end of the 19th ^century  . While some researchers propose different origins for summer camps based on previously existing structures, Pastor Bion is often presented as their inventor. It is also he who gave them their name, “Ferienkolonien”.

In 1876, this pastor from Zurich, Switzerland, noticed that children in the city were puny, sickly… while children in the countryside were healthier. He then decided to bring 68 children from Zurich to the Appenzell plateau during the summer months. He continued in the following years and initiated a movement in many countries in Europe.

Very quickly, there were two types of colonies: family placement, in groups of two or three children in a family, most often peasant; the collective colony, the children all lodged in the same structure. They operated at the same time until the 1940s, when family placement almost disappeared.

At camp, you had to grow and get bigger. That’s why the children were weighed and measured at the beginning and end of their stay. That’s also why the camp had to last a long time – from three weeks to two months, depending on the organizers.

In 1881, Pastor Lorriaux organized the first French holiday camp (of the family placement type). He was followed by School Funds, notably in Paris under the name of school colonies. They were secular. Catholics, in turn, created holiday camps by taking children from their patronages and schools. There were then camps with political origins (from the 1930s), mainly left-wing, but also far-right.

Finally, some companies, even before the creation of works councils, organized stays, as did various administrations for their staff or beneficiaries, and then more independent initiatives such as neighborhood associations…

The first holiday camps were organized near the organizing municipalities, sometimes only 10-15 km away. It must be said that the countryside was not far from the cities. With the improvement of transport, collective train tickets… the camps were able to move further away, thus making it possible to go to the sea or the mountains.

It was not until the decree-law of June 17, 1938 , that a text was issued constituting the basis of their regulation. Article 1 ^specifies  that children accommodated in a holiday camp are placed under the protection of the public authority. This text does not indicate the duration or the minimum numbers to be a holiday camp.

The current text no longer refers to holiday camps, but to holiday stays. It has kept the same principle: the child is placed under the protection of the State, represented by the ministry in charge of youth. On the other hand, the stays include at least seven minors, the duration of the accommodation is more than three consecutive nights. There are specific regulations (buildings, food, supervision, etc.) in order to ensure the safety of the stays.

The colonies are supervised by a director and animators. They must hold specific certificates , the best known of which is the animator certificate: the BAFA . which has been awarded in some years to more than 50,000 people . This short training course has recently become accessible from the age of 16. To validate it, you must have completed two theoretical sessions of eight and six days and a practical course of fourteen days.

Outdoor sports and fun activities

The activities we did changed over time.

The children took part in outdoor sports, including gymnastics, but also outdoor games, such as the “bar game” , then the big games (treasure hunts, trail games) with various themes (Middle Ages, space, famous people, etc.).

The walks allowed you to go to a site or simply to walk. The hikes including lunch were like excursions that allowed you to see a particular place, a summit…

During workshops, participants made many objects. It started with sewing work, objects carved out of wood. In the 1950s, summer camps invested in materials such as plaster, earth (pottery), wood (cutting and pyrography), paint, raffia, etc. In the 1970s, manual activities were enriched with rattan (small basketwork), scoubidous, candles, etc. The 1990s saw the introduction of “salt dough”.

During the evenings, the vigils were frequent, even daily. There were little games, mimes, puppets, shadow theater, reading… There was a lot of singing.

The entertainment team sometimes organized theme days such as the Olympic Games and shows (which sometimes became a party, since the 1980s).

Finally, there is always the nap, which often becomes a quiet time after the meal. It allows you to complete the long nights and to chat, read, write…

The summer camps have always been able to follow the modernization of society, particularly technological developments. Thus, in summer camps, the children did theater (with dramatic games), took and developed photos, attended screenings of still and then animated films, listened to records, made slide shows, used computers, etc.

Fortunately, the challenges faced by children today are not the same as they were over a century ago. The first participants were mainly poor children, malnourished and living in unsanitary housing. A few weeks of fresh air were supposed to give them the energy they needed to avoid diseases, especially tuberculosis.

Camps became an essential part of the holiday, especially for children who did not go away with their families. Many children, starting in the 1950s, went to spend 3 weeks or a month at “their” camp each year.

In the 1980s, the increase in the price of summer camps gradually pushed middle-class children away, while children from wealthy or heavily supported families could finance these stays. The reduction in support provided by works councils pushed working-class and/or employee families away from summer camps.

A wide variety of children’s stays and organizers

Today’s colonies have changed a lot . They all respect the same standards concerning premises, staff, supervision rates, etc. They are controlled by inspectors from the ministry in charge of youth.

There are many types of summer camps: themed stays; stays abroad; more local stays, focusing on the notion of vacation, or developing autonomy; stays based on activities. The stays are sometimes national, welcoming children from all over France, which involves significant organization to manage transfers.
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The profile of the organizers has also changed. There are fewer works councils and municipalities, there are still associations but there are also a few commercial companies. The price of summer camps is increasingly high, but there is still possible assistance, particularly with the Pass’colo and learning camps.

After a significant drop due to Covid, the number of children leaving for summer camps had not, in 2022-2023, returned to the level of 2018-2019. During the year 2022-2023, there were approximately 25,000 stays for a total of 800,000 departures (the same child may have made several stays).

Today’s summer camps meet many needs. The first is the right to vacation for all children who do not leave during the summer months, many of whom stay for two months in leisure centers that are, most often, in their schools.

Camps also allow you to practice activities that you don’t do at home or with your family. And then camps have allowed and still allow you to learn to live in a community, to share your room, to acquire autonomy… to simply grow .

Author Bio: Eric Carton is Associate Researcher at the Transitions laboratory at Côte d’Azur University