My husband and I are traveling to France in June. We have 4-5 days before we meet up with others and we want to do day hikes or hike from village to village. Any suggestions on what areas? We thought about the Dordogne area or going to Chamonix.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
23 posts
Hi Sara,
I haven't hiked near Chamonix but I there is a walk from village to village near the Dordogne from Martel to Rocamadour which you could shorten to 4-5 days. http://ilovewalkinginfrance.com/which-walk-martel-to-rocamadour/
Alternatively, there are some gorgeous villages near Sarlat-le-Canéda (Domme, La Roque Cageac, Beynac, Castelnau and a few more) that I think would make a great walk. I don't have too many details but I know several are connected by walking paths and I think a good map would be enough (IGN series 1:25,000)
Melinda
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10192 posts
There are thousands of kilometers of well-marked organized hiking trails in France. Here is the site for the national organization called Chemin du Grande Randonee (GR), which has trails that meet up with trails from other countries. A few trails are part of the pilgrimage trails to Compostelle, which in fact originate all over Europe, even in the far north and east.
Tourist information offices have maps of local trails, some of which are the same as the above GR. Finally, there are books in each area listing local trails.
Posted by
California
745 posts
In the Dordogne, we did a lovely all day hike from Beynac to the villages of La Roque-Gageac and Castelnaud.
Posted by
Oak Park
243 posts
The hike to lac blanc is a relatively short hike, but steep and can be combined with other hikes to make a complete day. The views on a clear day are great. You can also hike to mer de glace. The trails are well marked. We did 3 days of day hikes and spent most of the day on the trails.
I believe it is possible to hike hut to hut, as I have heard of trips that spent about 10 days hiking everyday to new locations. I have no first hand experience with this, so you need more info from other posters or will need to research.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10192 posts
Globe Trekker had an episode on hut-to-hut hiking in the Alps, and we also saw a documentary on French TV5. You need to be well equiped and have reservations. Though the huts have a hundred beds, they fill, and the overflow has to sleep outside.
Posted by
Somerville, MA
605 posts
Posted by
841 posts
We did a half dozen or so hikes on our last trip to France. The best advice we had was from B&B owners. We had mixed advice from Tourist offices (although they did have a wealth of information). None of the hikes were bad but a couple were easier than what we really wanted. There are hikes everywhere.
I was also going to suggest "Compestelle" pilgrimage trails. We considered this but decided we didn't want to be so pinned down for our last trip -- maybe next time!
Posted by
Washington
919 posts
The Haute Pyrenees are an overlooked region. Very beautiful. I did a trip with Mountainbug out of Bareges a few years ago that was well-organized. Just looking at their website will give you some ideas of what's in that area.
Posted by
English but living in Melbourne, Australia
420 posts
The choice between day hikes and village to village hikes is likely to depend on your luggage, unless you are hardened back-packers. Of the many UK-based companies offering village to village options where the transport of your luggage is included I can recommend InnTravel and Macs Adventures. The latter has a new "Highlights of Périgord Noir" 5 days/4 nights walk based on Sarlat that looks very attractive.