Hiking and Walking in France
Having explored the Brittany coast to the west of Saint Malo for last week’s hike, we will today turn in the opposite direction. But although the landscape around Rothéneuf – the starting point for today’s exploration of the GR34 coastal path – may look familiar with its mix of dramatic scenery … … and more…
A few years ago, French hikers were asked to name their favourite hiking trail in the country, and it was the great Brittany stretch of the nationwide coastal path that received the largest number of votes. I don’t know whether this vote was a one-off or whether it is conducted every year or so, and…
For this week’s post, we stay within Burgundy but move from a stopover town on the circuit – Auxerre – to a destination near the top of the charts. With the possible exception of Dijon, the region’s capital, no town in Burgundy attracts as many visitors as Beaune. Most of these visitors come here to…
Towns in provincial France or La France Profonde come in two varieties: they either aspire to be smaller versions of Paris, or they do not. Auxerre – as near the geographical centre of the country and, perhaps, its heart as you can hope to get – is an excellent example for the second group. Auxerre’s…
There are two reasons to travel to the town of Beaucaire. Firstly, there is the experience of walking across a border: not a national but a cultural border, one that has divided France into tribes of different customs and habits for centuries. Up to a point, it still does so today. Take the train to…
A river always comes in handy for a human settlement – that’s why so many towns across the world have one. Still, it’s rare to find a place that has found as many purposes for its natural waterway as the Provençal town of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. First of all came the discovery that the river Sorgue was…
Having returned from our recent trip to Avignon, I went through old Easy Hiker posts to check what we had posted from our previous visits of the town – and found, much to my surprise, that the answer was: nothing. Nothing at all! Was that even possible? We must have visited Avignon at least four…
Rocamadour in the Dordogne valley east of Bordeaux is one of France’s top visitor attractions, but unlike most of the other entries in tourism’s Top Of The Pops, it has been a hit for centuries. Had visitor numbers been measured in the Middle Ages, Rocamadour would have topped such a statistic year after year, centuries…
Limoges is in possession of not one but two town centres. This does not make the capital of the Limousin province (located about half way between Paris and Bordeaux) unique as such, but its two richly storied ancient quarters, unlike most of the other town centre twins, are not conjoined. Centuries later, they still resemble…
Coastal resort towns all over the world are the same – or so I thought before I took a closer look. Since then, I believe that this is a sweeping generalization which, like all sweeping generalizations, contains a grain of truth and a lot of ignorance. In fact, resort towns can be 10 kilometres away…