Travelers in France: Between Law and Hospitality

Abstract

Hospitality is an obligation, bordering a contract, but which, through the centuries, has been progressively replaced by laws, international and social, conferring rights by nature more constant than the protections granted by liberality or by the contract. In France, the "gens du voyage" thus benefited from the law "Besson" enacted in 2000, a law obliging municipalities with more than 5000 inhabitants to build hosting areas. Through some examples, this article demonstrates how this law directly inspired by the desire to grant a place to the "gens du voyage", aspects of hospitality than of fully recognized citizens.