Walking · France
France is laced with grandes randonnées — the GR network — the longest and best-loved footpath system in Europe. Nowhere finer than the GR10, which crosses the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
Why walk here
France invented the long-distance footpath as we know it. The Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre has waymarked more than 65,000 kilometres of grandes randonnées since the 1940s — the red-and-white flashes you see on trees, walls, and cairns from the Vosges to the Pyrenees.
The GR10 is the finest of them. Nine hundred and fifty four kilometres end to end along the French flank of the Pyrenees, from the surf town of Hendaye on the Bay of Biscay to Banyuls-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean. Most people walk it a section at a time — eight natural stages, each one a serious walk in its own right.
You pass through Basque farmland, the high cirques above Cauterets and Gavarnie, the Ariège wilderness, and finally the vineyards of the Roussillon before the sea. Small mountain villages, gîtes d'étape, and the best rustic cooking in the country — cassoulet, garbure, mountain cheese, wine from the valley you slept in.
The trails we walk
Every trail is walked and re-walked before we open it. We'd rather do four brilliantly than forty badly.
Book nowFrench Pyrenees
954 km · 45–65 days
Coast to coast across the Pyrenees — Atlantic to Mediterranean in eight named sections. Walk one, walk them all, walk them over several summers.
Book nowChamonix Valley · French, Italian and Swiss Alps
110 km · 7 days
The classic circuit around Mont Blanc in a compact seven-day self-guided routing — walked anti-clockwise to duck the crowds. Half-board every night, luggage transfer available.
Book nowQueyras Regional Natural Park · southern French Alps
95 km · 7 days
A quieter alpine circuit through the sun-baked Queyras — high perched villages, seven cols, a brief crossing into Italy at the foot of Mont Viso.
Book nowChamonix Valley · French, Italian and Swiss Alps
130 km · 9 days
The full Tour of Mont Blanc at a sane pace — three countries, the classic high passes, and a full rest day's worth of extra time spread across nine days so you're not racing the schedule.
Book nowVal d'Hérens · Val d'Anniviers · Swiss Alps
89 km · 6 days
A shortened take on the great Chamonix–Zermatt Haute Route — five high Alpine passes, glaciers close on both sides, and a finish under the north face of the Matterhorn.
Book nowChamonix Valley and the Swiss border · French and Swiss Alps
57 km · 7 days
A gentler way into the Mont Blanc massif — mountain trains and cable cars do the hard climbing, so every day begins high and stays at altitude, with a comfortable hotel bed each evening.
Book nowVanoise National Park · French Alps
93 km · 6 days
Six days around the Dômes de la Vanoise — twenty kilometres of glaciers through the heart of France's oldest national park, with the Grande Casse never far from view.
Book nowVerdon Regional Natural Park · Provence
71 km · 6 days
A week around the wild plateaus and turquoise gorges of the Verdon — perched villages, cliff-hung trails, and the scent of lavender and pine.
Book nowLozère / Aveyron · Gorges du Tarn
108 km · 7 days
A week-long loop through the spectacular Tarn and Jonte Gorges — towering cliffs, turquoise waters, and the vast, wild plateaus of the Grands Causses.
Book nowBaronnies Regional Nature Park · Provence
82 km · 6 days
A sun-drenched loop through the Baronnies — lavender fields, limestone ridges, turquoise gorges, and the quiet rhythm of traditional hill villages.
Book nowMassif Central · Auvergne
85 km · 7 days
A week-long circuit through the Auvergne Volcanoes Regional Nature Park — the highest peak of the Massif Central, medieval stone villages, and deep blue crater lakes.
Book nowVercors Regional Natural Park · Prealps
86 km · 7 days
A circumnavigation of the extraordinary Vercors massif — limestone cliffs rising like a wall to protect a hidden world of high pastures, deep gorges, and Alpine views.
Book nowBeaufortain Massif · Savoie
75 km · 6 days
A high-altitude circuit through the greenest pastures of Savoie — traditional chalets, crystal lakes, and the jagged profile of Mont Blanc on the horizon.
The trails on one map
Lines follow each trail's waypoints — live trail pages draw the full GPX route. Tap a line to see the trail.
Reasons to linger
Eat
Garbure in the Béarn — a thick cabbage and duck-confit soup. Cassoulet as you cross into the Ariège. Cheese from Ossau-Iraty ewes, still made in the estives. Every gîte serves a set menu at a long table with the other walkers, and there's always more bread.
Drink
Jurançon whites in the Basque foothills. Madiran reds further east. Muscat de Rivesaltes as you drop toward the Mediterranean. Wine in France follows the trail — order the local one, whatever the map calls it.
Sleep
We book you into the small family-run gîtes d'étape that string along the GR10, plus the odd Logis hotel in the valley towns for a proper bed and a shower with pressure. Simple, friendly, walker-first.
Read
Kev Reynolds's The GR10 Trail (Cicerone) is the classic guide. Steve Cracknell's If You Only Walk Long Enough retraces the range end to end. Paddy Dillon's Trekking in the Pyrenees for the wider picture. Take one for the train down.
From the journal
Elise Downing ran the Ridgeway in three days. Two friends tried to walk the same distances. It went about as well as last time.
Sarah and Ros walk a trail together every year — arriving from opposite ends of the country to spend one week together, all the planning sorted. This year it was the South Downs Way. On day five, they walked a mile with Bill Bailey.
Chris Townsend walked the GR5 in autumn, with a tarp on his back and the huts closing behind him.
