scotty09

I would like to try a walking tour this summer in Eastern France hiking the high country along the French/Italian border. I am looking at the Queyras and Mercantour Parks, in an area roughly between Briancon and St. Martin-Vesubie.....so that would be in the Hautes-Alpes and the Alpes de Haute Provence. I may take the Paris-Milan express and come up from the Italian side of the tunnel from Bardonecchia/Oulx.
Since this would be my first time in that region, I was thinking of signing up with a guided walking/touring company for an organised trip in the region. Do any of you have experience of using companies for this purpose, and would you recommend any of them?
Also if I go on my own, I would like to pick a good base town in this region that has a variety of walks that I could try every day. That is, I could go back to the same lodging every night and try a different trek every day. Any suggestions?
merci/grazie

selkieNice

Try Spacebetween - Walking and Adventure Holidays.
I've only heard good reports about them and they have gone out of their way to help me with info and are really friendly

http://www.space-between.co.uk/

gustave

Scotty,

My wife and I stayed and hiked in the Mercantour in 07 and 09. It's a lovely area. I don't really think that you need a guide. Get yourself a copy of Walking the Alpine Parks by Marcia Lieberman. It covers the Mercantour but also Queyras, Ecrins, and Vanoise (not familiar with those areas). Also get yourself some hiking maps. Trails are well marked; we had no trouble. But you will need a car, because the trailheads are pretty far out from the towns.

St.-Martin-Vésubie is a pretty, decent-sized town with a number of hotels and restaurants and is pretty central to the main hikes.

The people who run The Spacebetween are very nice. We stayed in their gîte, although we didn't use their guide services. But if you want to see the Vallée des Merveilles you would need someone like them.

If you speak decent French I can direct you to another gîte in a smaller town than St. Martin. Owners are enthusiastic hikers and monsieur has put together a very helpful guide to walks in the area.

Don't forget that despite the wonderfully rugged terrain you are only about an hour more or less from Nice. You can fly into Nice (don't know where you are coming from) and be in St. Martin very quickly. And if you want a break from the mountains you can just as quickly be on the Med. My wife and I drove down to the coast to celebrate my birthday at a favorite restaurant of ours.

Hope this helps.

frogoutofwater

I haven't travelled in France with them, but I have done walking tours with Exodus (a trip in Spain) and Sherpa (a trip in Morocco). They're both based in the UK. Sherpa also offers self-guided tours (they provide the itinerary, set up the hotels and transfer your baggage en route).

If you can speak some French, you might consider Balaguere, a French company based in the Pyrenees with tours all over France. They offer guided tours and self-guided tours. My friends have done trips with them and generally were pleased, and the price was reasonable. I contacted them once about a trip and they indicated that they offered to figure out which tours could be done with a bilingual guide (I explained that I actually wanted to do a tour with a French group and French guide to practise my French).

scotty09

thanks Gustave...I have read the Lieberman book which actually piqued my interest in that area...and I speak fluent french so would love to hear about the small town gite you mention, merci!

gustave

The town is Roquebillière, which is divided by a river into an old section (damaged by floods) and a newer section built higher up. This is in the newer section. It's a very quiet town, not touristy; other side of that is that there are only a few restaurants; we mostly cooked in or took out from the butcher's. Here is the link for the gîte:

http://giteloustal.free.fr/

This is pretty centrally located for a lot of hikes.

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great trip. Can't tell you how much I liked the area.

scotty09

many thanks gustave-- I just checked out their website and unfortunately they are fully booked for July. One feature I did not like was that they charge extra for bed sheets and towels---you'll spend an extra 37 euros a week on supplies and cleaning. For an overseas traveller it is simply not practical to use a gite that does not provide the basics. Is this customary in French gites?

P_M

A few years ago I did a walking tour in the Swiss/French Alps with Guerba which is now owned by Intrepid. The trip I took was wonderful and I would do it again. Please check out Intrepid to see if there is anything of interest.

wizardofaus

http://www.pyrenees.co.uk/2005%20web.../Keystaff.html come highly recommended. I haven't used them myself, but I know people who have. The aren't alps based though.

Simon
http://tourtheloire.com/