The paddle from Paris ends on the inside bend of the Grand at Brant Conservation Area, and you camp in the trees off that water. Canoes and kayaks launch above Wilkes Dam and again below it, so a night on the bank and a day on the river are the same trip.
Paris is the heritage village at the top of the run. You start in the village and finish at the campground. Grand River Rafting Company sells a beginner paddle from Paris to the park, and the conservation area is the take-out.
When you reach Wilkes Dam you get out, carry the boat on the marked portage around the drop, and put in on the lower water. Grand River Conservation Authority marks that portage and the S.C. Johnson Rail Trail beside the park. Walk the trail from the park toward the village. Highway 2 is the road for that same pair of towns.
Brant Conservation Area is night one. Grand River Conservation Authority books sites online, and you take that reservation before you choose the van, because the pad is what you are sleeping on.
Sites run unserviced, electric-and-water, and full-service. Match the hookups to the vehicle when you book. An unserviced pad and a full-service pad are different overnights. A campervan that only needs a place to park can use a simpler site than a rig that wants sewer.
One camper or trailer is allowed per site, along with a dining shelter. The authority does not publish a length cap. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan holds, look at RV rentals in Brantford.
Give it two or three nights. Spend one on the water in front of the campground, one on the Paris run or the rail trail, and one at the Woodland Cultural Centre. The site does not change.
Woodland Cultural Centre and Six Nations
Tour groups move through the old Mohawk Institute in Brantford, the residential school that is now the Woodland Cultural Centre. The brick building is in the city, a parked day. You leave the river campground, park once, and go inside.
Guided and self-guided tours both run, public and group. A guide walks you through the building, or you walk it yourself. Workshops and education programs fill the rest of a slow day.
The museum follows Six Nations of the Grand River, Onondaga, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The story it tells runs from about 600 years ago to the present. The history belongs to the same river as the campground.
Valens Lake is the Hamilton night. Long Point on Lake Erie is the Simcoe overnight. Kitchener is Laurel Creek.