Grande Randonee

Bonjour Mark! I just returned home last Friday from doing a self-guided hike through discoverfrance.com. It was a mother/daughter trip that my daughter arranged. Absolutely loved it! We were picked up at the Avignon TGV and driven to our first hotel in Les Baux where we had dinner at a Michelin 2-star restaurant. (marvelous!) The next morning we walked/hiked to St Rémy, taking a picnic with us. Our bags were picked up and taken to the hotel in St Rémy between 10-3:00. Next day we hiked to Eygalières. From Eygalières to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue we were driven. And so on to Fontaine de Vaucluse and Gordes. (We didn't do the entire day at Gordes but just walked/hiked to the Abbaye de Sénanque.) For the fee, Discover France covered the hotels for the week, the first nights dinner, a GPS and maps of our hikes and a phone number if we had difficulties. We were thrilled! If you have further questions, you're welcome to PM me.

Bonjour Darci. We have thought about using a travel service. We are exploring the possiblility of planning our own trip (to save money and in case we find a place that we want to spend a little more time at). We know some people that planned thier trip this way in the same general (provence) area you traveled and had a blast. Is there anything in particular that attracted you to this area? Thanks, Mark

At the other end of the budget scale, I did this with French friends many, many years ago. We slept in barns, mountain refuges, and small-town hotels. I'll never forget some of the food we had at farm tables. The itineraries in the GR guidebooks were accurate. We started in Millau and hiked eight days to Ales, carrying our own packs, sleeping bags, food, guitars. Today there are many gites/farms that lodge hikers near the trails. The GR books also served us on Sundays for hikes in the Paris region. We'd take the train an hour out and hike the GR trails to another station, again finding the trails through fields and woods extremely well marked and the information in the books reliable. Today, it's probably all built up and we'd have to go further out, but in the old days....Hope you have a ball following those red and white signs.

We chose Provence because it's such a beautiful region and we love the food and wine. Oh, I guess I could say that about most of France!

Thanks Darcy and Bets. My guess is that we will probably do something in the middle of your experiences. I'm thinking of staying at bed and breakfasts' and small hotels with walks between of 10-15 miles. Also considering staying in one place and venturing out from there in different directions for a time. We're definately interested in the food and wine. One thing we know, is that a stop at a winery (or more)has to be on the itinerary. We've stayed a week in an apartment in france before and enjoyed trying to blend in with the locals. Thought it would be fun to try something like that in a more rural setting. The hard part is working out where! Thanks again for your experiences and advice! It helps.

Hi Mark, What France has that no one else has developed quite as extensively is "donkey trekking"... Check it out: they have a whole network of donkey trekking operators that offer the donkeys, well set up routes and a range of accommodation for yourselves and your "grosse peluche". Believe me, these donkeys are spoiled, well cared for and adorable! They carry your stuff and force you to adopt a much more suitable pace to enjoy the scents and sounds of the countryside. Here are a few links to get you started: http://www.ane-et-rando.com/ http://www.ane-en-rando.com/l_association_051.htm We picked Berlou (because of the wineries!):
http://www.auxpetitssabots.com/Randonnees There's a great B&B run by a British ex-pat couple nearby: http://www.lesmimosas.net/enindex.html Click on the English links... and have fun getting seduced.