Trekking in the South of France??

jusmeig

Might be chancing my arm with this post...but has anyone done any good day treks in the South of France??

I'll be traveling their this summer and wanted to get a good day hike in while im down. Im close enough to the Pyrenees and Parc National Cevennes which has Mont Aigoual which is a good hike.

I've never walked in this area and wonder could anyone get me started with a good guide book etc on routes?

Thanks in advance.

J

Chris O Donoghue

Hi:
We did a bit of hiking in the Pyrenees in the last few years, sometimes the Tourist Offices were very helpful, at other times they referred us to commerical tour operators in the town. While we were in the area I picked up a few guide books, the best one was the Randoguides series, this link is to one for the Cevennes region.

The rother series of guide books are worth a look as well, they have 3 guides for the Pyrenees, we used one for the central region around Tarbes. I'm not sure if they cover very far south/east but take a look at this link and you might find ones that are suitable.

You probalby know this but rando, randonnaire, randonnées refer to hillwalks, ballades refer to shorter walks, if you're searching for info online.

The IGN 1:50 and 1:25 series of maps are great, they're available online from www.ign.fr

The main thing to watch out for is the heat, if you go a bit inland it's horrendous from 11 to 4 during the summer; in some of the limestone areas it's hard to get at water so bring loads with you.

jusmeig

Thanks Chris some great material here...although I must admit my French is not very good
We will have 2-3 fluent French speakers in the groups so that's not a problem.

I'm thinking of doing the Sentier des 4000 Marches.
It's a 22k day trek that takes in the forests around Mont Aigoual as well as the summit and visiting the weather station.

I'll have to trawl that link you sent to find the correct map.
Thanks for the help!!

Chris O Donoghue

That sounds like a great trip, bon chance!

The French speaking skills will come in useful, some of the guide books use slang which made it tougher again to translate.

Iif you can, try to get the maps in advance, and get them laminated; they are very good and clearly printed but the paper is flimsy, so they don't last long in sweaty paws. I did a homemade lamination with the stuff for covering school books, it worked out fine.

Best of luck with the trip!

jusmeig

Thanks again, I got two guides:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1852845236/ref=oss_product
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/2758508028/ref=oss_product

I also plan to get the map for my GPS...so there *should* be no getting lost!

Road Bandit

Here is a link to an free GPS map for France. I have used it in the Alps (GR5) and it worked fine. I did the GR20 a few years ago the Pyrenees are fantastic. Enjoy
http://fredericbonifas.free.fr/osm/garmin.html