France travel guide : walking in France, backpacking in France, hiking in France, itineraries

France visit : walking, hiking and backpacking in France

France is a superb walking country with many wonderful diverse landscapes and thousand of footpaths and marked trails. These are called :

• Sentiers de Grande Randonnée which could be translated by "great walk paths". They are marked by red and white signs.
• Randonnees de pays or "country walks" are long walks within regions and marked with red and yellow signs.
• Promenades or Randonnees are shorter walks marked by yellow signs.

Examples of walks

If you are looking for sea and sun :

Then the best places for walking may be the south east and south west.

If you are looking for mountains:

Then you will appreciate the diverse mountains of the country : 

• Auvergne (in the centre of the country) : Mont Dore, Puy de Sancy...
• Pyrenees (in the south west) : you will enjoy the Parc National des Pyrenees, a natural park with great landscapes such as  the Cirque of Gavarnie, the lac de Gaube
• Alps, with for example the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe
  
  
  

A pilgrim path : the Chemins de Saint Jacques de Compostelle or way of St. James 

The way of St. James is marked by shells and goes to Santiago de compostelle in Spain