I'm wanting to research walking tours in France. Can anyone link me to the main operators, as well as the lesser known ones please?

Hi nicolom

Not sure there is a comprehensive link to all walking tours but you might like to look at 2 UK based sites that have details of the smaller and more personal providers of walking holidays including France. We advertise our walking holidays (Jardin du Segala) on both.

The sites are www.ramblingclubs.com and the excellent www.walkingworld.com

Regards

Richard

headwaters are pretty good 'fraid google for it. UK based

Butterfield and Robinson, a luxury operator, offers walking tours in Corsica, Burgundy and Provence..





http://www.butterfield.com/index.asp...046&fid5=2

http://www.france-randonnee.fr/cadre.htm

You could also check on the tours that follow the pilgrim way from Vézelay down to Santiago de Compostela. Friends who did that one thought it excellent.

Try www.backroads.com. They have hiking and biking trips.

If you live in the US check www.adventurecenter.com.

Also www.countrywalkers.com
They're a bit less pricey than Backroads and B&R. They offer trips through the Dordogne and a Spain-France Basque Country combo that I've wanted to do.

There's also www.sherpaexpeditions.com that offers a Pilgrims' Route to St. James, but starts at Le Puy and ends at Conque-doesn't cross the border at Roncesvalles.

Both www.ramblersholidays.co.uk and www.hfholidays.co.uk are quite good.

Thank you all - this is alot to go on for starters. I'll get reading.

www.atg-oxford.co.uk make sure you get decent food and drink, which - sadly - is no longer automatic in France, especially in places where the English and Germans don't keep local restaurants alive.

They also have exceptionally guides with you if you choose their full package. Their self-guided walks get you into great hotels and organise baggage transport.

We have done several European self-guided walking trips through Sherpa (http://www.sherpa-walking-holidays.co.uk/default.asp) and highly recommend them. One of our Sherpa trips was in Alsace. You might be interested in my trip report here: http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/tripreport.asp?tripid=373

Our family has lived in the Luberon area of Provence, now visits a few times a year and hiked there extensively. This is a fabulous area for an inn-to-inn walking tour, and there are several operators available. You could save money by working with a local operator. (Oftentimes these are the people the big providers contract with.) I have a list of tours in the Luberon here (scroll down near the bottom of the page): http://www.slowtrav.com/france/hiking/luberon.htm

We hope to do a two week walking trip in France again this summer, potentially the Stevenson walk. We are looking at possibly structuring a customized trip through Sentiers de France http://www.sentiersdefrance.com/

Are you looking for a self-guided or guided trip? How long? And are you looking for an upscale trip (like Backroads) or something more economical?

Kathy

I'm topping, hoping to get more in-put. I've posted separately with questions about Backroads. Keep wishing I could get more feedback. Trying to decide whether this kind of thing would be pleasant for us. (We don't usually do things with groups, but we would like to avoid all the planning, driving, etc for this trip, so sounds as if it might be just the ticket.)

Hi poss,

Given what you've said about yourself, you really might enjoy a "self-guided" walking trip. This has the advantage of someone else doing the planning, but you have more individual flexibility and aren't tied to a group. The walking tour company provides your route (often with alternatives), maps and notes; makes accommodations arrangements (including breakfast and sometimes also dinner); and moves your luggage every day.

You will find the self-guided options (through companies like Sherpa) to be much less expensive than Backroads.

On our self-guided walks, we've always met other people on a similar route-- usually from many other countries. We really enjoy the social interactions and have made some good friends along the way.

Kathy

Kathy: What an extraordinary array of ideas and resources you've provided! Impressive and generous indeed. Thank you.
I read, e.g., the wonderfully detailed and terrific-sounding info from Sherpa. At an earlier stage in our life, something like that might have worked beautifully. At least two major drawbacks for us at this point: We don't want to haul around from airport to train station with baggage, etc; we're looking for upscale accommodations.
It sounds as if you and your family have a lovely life!