Leaving Montcuq

We are a pair of ageing but energetic Australians, addicted to walking in France. We have done this every year since 2002 in many different parts of France. To the despair of our family we keep thinking of new areas to explore, and no doubt will continue doing so until our legs crumble, or civilisation does, whichever comes first.

There are many companies offering so-called independent walking tours who provide route information, hotel bookings and transfer of bags between hotels. They are absurdly expensive and we consider them rigid and limiting. However we don’t completely knock them, as their brochures are a good source of ideas for our own itineraries.

It is not actually very difficult to organise your own expedition, although there are pitfalls.

We have written this website, which is entirely non-commercial, in a spirit of comradeship and to spare others some of our more disastrous mistakes. It contains general information and advice, and a description of each of our walks.

Our walks so far

This is a map of the 7,100 kilometres of walking we have so far done in France.

To identify a particular walk on the map, click on the line. Use the zoom controls to see the map in greater detail.

You can also see a large, very detailed view, of this map in Google Earth.

For a brief description and map of each of our walks, see diaries and maps.

The beginners’ guide is a general introduction to walking in France, and to learn from our mistakes see our golden rules.

From our diaries, we have extracted what we think are the best short walks (from three to eight days), as well as other walks on canals and disused railways.

The Pilgrimages of St-Jacques-de-Compostelle

On the Way of le Puy, near Estaing

In English, these are known as the Ways of Saint James. Since mediaeval times, pilgrims have converged on the saint’s tomb (in northern Spain) from all directions, including through France on four main routes.

All four of these have now been marked for present-day walkers. The most popular is the one starting from le Puy, which is the one that most people think of when planning a walking holiday in France.

For a brief outline of these four traditional routes and links to the diaries of our adventures on them, see pilgrim ways.

Contact us

In the mountains of Beaujolais

We hope this website will be a useful guide for anyone contemplating a pedestrian tour in France, whether you call it hiking, rambling, trekking, tramping or just plain walking.

If you would like to get in touch with us, whether to make a comment, to point out a mistake, or to ask a question, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

You can contact us, Jenny and Keith, at:

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