Walking in France map & highlights

The word for ‘hike’ in French is randonner, and throughout the country there is a network of long distance, waymarked trails known as the Grandes Randonnees, or GR (pronounced Jay-Err). French hikers will always refer to the GR10, for example, which traverses the Pyrenees, the GR50 and GR54 in the Parc National des Écrins, or the GR52 through the Alpes Maritimes in the Mercantour National Park. Consequently, there is a super impressive infrastructure that has grown around the GRs and other trails, many based on ancient shepherd routes or hunting domains. Whether it is through the alpine wonders of Mont Blanc or Haute Savoie, the Pyrenean promeneurs’ paradise or ancient woodlands of the Poitou-Charentes, France walking vacation highlights are many and varied.

Peter Roche, co-founder of our supplier, Le Moulin du Chemin, shares his top France walking vacation highlights: “For walkers who enjoy seeing birds, ‘Bocage’ in the Pay de Gâtine in Poitou-Charentes, especially May and June, is recommended, when nesting birds are at their most active. Mixed countryside with woods, small cultivated fields, meadows and pastures with ancient hedgerows, orchards and lakes is the best for seeing birds and makes for more-interesting walking. The Anse de l’Aiguillon (just north of la Rochelle on the Atlantic coast) is the best place in Europe to see wading birds. 250,000 birds congregate here each autumn in wonderful maritime walking country”.