Across the hill crest - Very Best of Stevenson - Trekking in France

Trekking in France

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rekking in France with The Enlightened Traveller comprises full-day, hotel-to-hotel or inn-to-inn self-guided walking. You walk along a mix of long distance trails [GRs], regional routes [GPRs] or local paths [PRs]. Essential meals are included for your convenience, where no alternatives exist, as too are luggage transfers, unless you would prefer to omit these and backpack.

Trekking in France embraces longer, inn-to-inn walking tours that require higher levels of endurance and obviously more time.  You may wish to include the odd rest or recuperation day with the latter challenges. Shorter, mini-treks of three days duration or more can be found by clicking Short Walks in France.

Trekking can be both empowering and educational. Choose from our fascinating range of themed tours. You gain added value and interest in the form of a contextualized learning experience that takes place en route with the assistance of our comprehensive dossier and Insight Notes™.

Our model programmes encapsulate the experience to be had, but all tours can be customized to your individual requirements; so do not hesitate to ask us about options for reducing or increasing the duration of each day’s walking to suit your own requirements.

Trekking in France with The Enlightened Traveller comprises…

  • walking that starts and finishes from your own hotel for your convenience and comfort.
  • trails that can often be shortened or lengthened, according to the availability of accommodation or transport along the trail. This tailors the day’s walking to meet your particular needs, empowering you and enhancing enjoyment levels.
  • walking that lasts the best part of the day. You maximize your out-door enjoyment in the knowledge that your overnight accommodation is ready and waiting for your arrival and the attendant logistical issues arranged on your behalf.
  • welcoming accommodation that includes all meals where no alternatives exist. If options exist, and we feel you will have the time to explore them, then we leave you free to choose according to your budget and tastes – all relevant information is featured in your personalised dossier.

Backpacking

A discounted rate is available for those wishing to backpack. We are happy to let you carry your own luggage with you if that’s what you prefer.

Trekking in France is great fun and the walking ‘window of opportunity’ for the tours featured on this page is quite long. Key details of each trek are listed below and please click each photo to visit the relevant full tour page.

Remember, walks are colour-coded according to the level of physical exertion demanded:Light, Moderate or Harder, with some tours flexible enough to span two categories of challenge and so given dual-colour coding – viz., options exist on the day for customers to select the challenge of their choice according to their preferences. However, the main Trekking in France tour page is only able to display one colour for design reasons.

Light trekking in France

Trekking in France in Provence West - Aigueze

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alking Provence-West

Walking Provence-West is the perfect mix of light walking and serious cultural insight; the very best that Western Provence has to offer compacted into seven, gloriously-indulgent days.”

- This tour is available from April to late-September, although July and August sees temperatures around 30 celcius. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France at Aigues Mortes

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-Giles Pilgrimage: Garrigues, Costieres & Camargue

Walk the second part of France’s important Medieval pilgrimage from Alès, the Cevennes gateway, to St Gilles-du-Gard in Camargue – with a fabulous two-day Camarguaise extension via a Compostella variant to The Mediterranean Coast.”

- This tour is available from mid-March to late-October, although we would not recommend walking through Camargue in July or August. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France along the Tarn - menhir

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arn Gorges Walking

Trekking in France’s remote interior is a richly rewarding experience, exploring both canyon, limestone plateau, early man’s footprint and stunning, natural rock formations.”

- This tour is available from April to end-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Moderate trekking in France

Trekking in France along the Stevenson Trail- GR 70

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he Stevenson Trail

An opportunity to enjoy a modern classic, following in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson on the adventure that helped nurture one of the all-time literary greats .”

- This tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France with a Donkey

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onkey trekking Stevenson

An opportunity to enjoy one of Europe’s top hikes in the company of a trusted and long-eared companion. Remember, you’re the one who’s never hiked this trail before, not the Ass.”

- This tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France on the Way of St James

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alking Way of St James in Comfort

One of the two ‘must do’ walking tours in The Hexagon. This 7-day adventure takes you along the most popular of the four ‘French Ways’, the Via Podiensis or Le Puy Route to St Chely d’Aubrac.”

- This tour is available from April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France along the Loire Valley

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alking Loire Valley

Earn the right to enjoy some of the best cultural heritage available on any walking tour in France. The perfect mix of Trekking in France and discovery along UNESCO’s central Loire Valley.”

- This tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France from Le Puy to Conques

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Puy to Conques

The only section of this historic highway that we choose to promote as it offers the optimum experience and captures the essence of ‘El Camino’ in one two-week chunk.”

- This tour is available from April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France on the Camino Solo®

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amino Solo®

One of the two ‘must do’ walking tours in The Hexagon. This 7-day adventure takes you along the most popular of the four ‘French Ways’, the Via Podiensis or Le Puy Route to St Chely d’Aubrac.”

- This tour is available from April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France near the archejol viaduct

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tevenson Trail – Part One: Velay & Gevaudan

Retrace the steps taken by the nascent Scottish writer from Le Monastier to La Bastide, across the volcanic Upper Loire Valley and into historic Gevaudan – a journey of 93 kilometres or around 58 miles in six light-to-moderate days.”

- This tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France across the atlantic-mediterranean watershed

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tevenson Trail – Part Two: Mont Lozere & Cevennes

The second installment of Stevenson’s classic trail in a format classified as ‘moderate’. Start in La Bastide and finish in St-Jean-du-Gard near Ales en Cevennes.”

- This tour is available from April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France in Eastern Mont Lozere

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Giles Way – Part One: Massif Central & Eastern Cevennes

Walk the first part of Medieval Christendom’s fourth-most-important pilgrimage route from Le Puy in Haute Loire to Portes Castle, the gateway to The Mediterranean.”

- This tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France along The Best of the Stevenson Trail

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est of Stevenson

The highlights of the Robert Louis Stevenson trail – that’s 85 miles/140 kms of fine rural trails spread over six sumptuous days.”

- This tour is available from April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France along the Regordane Way

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est of The Regordane Way

Trekking in France along The Regordane: France’s quintessential historical trail, here in a ‘best of’ format.”

- This short tour is available from mid-April to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

More challenging trekking in France

Trekking in France on the Tour du Mont Blanc

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our du Mont Blanc in Comfort

The entire and mythical Mont Blanc route in one single trip and under the best possible conditions – Trekking in France, Italy and Switzerland.”

- This tour is available from 15th June to 15th September, when luggage transfers finish. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France near Mont Blanc

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ont Blanc hiking tour – Part Two

The southern half of our TMB extravaganza in the best of comfort from Chamonix, France, to Courmayeur in Italy, with options on one day.”

- This tour is available from 15th June to 15th September inclusive, when luggage transfers officially finish. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France on the mini-Mont Blanc tour

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alking Mont Blanc [mini-TMB tour]

No healthy and relatively-fit person should feel that the TMB is beyond them – it most certainly isn’t. So long as your detailed arrangements are made by experts, and you’re not having to worry about where to eat and sleep, nor navigational issues, the day’s walking becomes sheer enjoyment.”

- This tour is available from 15th June to 15th September. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France's Cantal

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alking in Cantal

Get to the heart of one of France’s unsung regions, Auvergne which, for the French cognoscenti, belongs in the top ten of France’s ‘plus beaux trekkings’ .”

- This tour is available from mid-May to mid-October. Click the photo (above) for further details.

Trekking in France with The Enlightened Traveller Trekking in France with The Enlightened TravellerTrekking in France: our instagram page Click to visit The French Hiker’s Guide to Holidaying in the Hexagon and France self-guided walking, trips, trails, places & themes.