Europe: Footloose on Hiking Trails

The French Alps GR5: La Grande Traversée des Alpes

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Chamonix, July 28, 2008

La Grande Traversée des Alpes or the GR5 between the Mediterannean coast to Lake Geneva runs about 660km, not including sidetrips to campgrounds and grocery stores. We won't claim to have walked every kilometre of the way. Unlike North American long distance paths, the French Alps are pretty civilized; it is largely a string of cow patties and ski hills interspersed with hot showers, lovely villages and wonderful alpine scenery.

The hardest step is usually the first one, unless you hop onto a French train and skip a day and half of climbing away from the Mediterannean. That was deemed necessary to reduce Sheila's wingeing about leaving the coast.

We started on the GR52, a scenic "variante". A few hiking hours brought us past chamois into the Vallée des Merveilles at 2100m, so called for its Bronze Age petroglyphs and rugged scenery. Trekking poles are prohibited through the historic section and we were tipped off about the bâton police who ensure that walkers do not poke their poles at the artwork. On our first full day on the trail, we crossed over three passes and over a staggering amount of snow for early July in the South of France. Sheila is still complaining about sore knees from that day. We didn't realize at the time, but the Southern region of the trail featured most of the wildest territory of the entire route. We saw dozens and dozens of chamois and some mountain ibex at close quarters in the first few days.

We also did not realize at the time that the bonjour police can pop out at anytime. On a long descent past an endless string of Sunday day trippers, Glenn failed to utter the mandatory bonjour with sufficient gusto only to be chastised by a tail member of a group, yelling bonjour and hello at him. He was lucky to escape with a warning

We settled into a routine of big climbs and equally long descents each day and passed through a series of lovely, formerly fortified villages. They included St. Dalmas, St. Sauveur, St. Etienne and another St. Dalmas, though perhaps we were walking in circles. We had some nice wild camping spots and faced our first thunderstorm just below the 2700m Col Giradin. We dashed over between lightening bolts which were no doubt further away than they felt at the time.

The GR5 guidebooks are all written in a North to South direction and most people set the Med as their goal. Naturally, we walked from the South to North with the sun behind us. We also imagined that the southern faces were generally steeper, making the northern descents a little easier on the knees. Along the way, we encountered southbound Jennifer and David from Australia who we had heard about from their friends on the Corsican GR20. Then we engineered, or more aptly blundered, into a reunion with southbound Barb and Steffen (UK 1994). They distribute an annual Christmas photo that puts us to shame and no doubt, we'll see a well orchestrated portrait with a banner, elf hats and a Mt Blanc backdrop at year end.

The GR5 sticks enticingly close to the Franco-Italian border so we nipped into Italy. We had a picnic lunch in Italy on two consecutive days, first at the ski resort of Clavière and then along the scenic GR5b variant. There was some discussion on the second day as to whether or not we were in France or Italy. We carry our own tent and generally a day or two of food. This is in contrast to the typical Euro walker who sets out into the mountains with mammoth boots, a 5-7kg pack, a further 3 kg of water and sometimes with a hat. Accomodation bookings are typically made in advance and they stay at a series of hotels, gite d'etapes and refuges with all meals, beer and wine provided. It is very civilized and roads or towns are rarely more than a few hours walk away. The French consider the North American notion of self-sufficient backpacking as courageous and sometimes as "elitist" because not everyone is capable of carrying their own food and shelter.

The beautiful Vanoise area of France can pose a challenge to the "elitist" trekkers because oddly enough, tenting is prohibited. As the French were late to the National Park game (the first one was established in 1963), the parks are relatively small. Sometimes the 4X4 roads built to service the refuges also serve as the main trail, so the "elitist" trekker can make good time. We walked the high mountain passage of the GR55 variant from Modane to Tignes, including a grunting 2000m climb, in 2 days with a stop-over in the attractive alpine resort of Pralignan.

Tignes relieved us the tedium of looking at mostly natural scenery and other walkers. There was so much going on including helicopters buzzing overhead, scenic plane flights, 4X4's, chairlifts everywhere, more chairlifts being built, appartment blocks and more under construction. It took us the better part of a day to walk through all the lifts and even days later we could see the the ski lifts from Col de la Croix de Bonhomme. There was even a steady stream of skiers heading up to the glacier on the furnicular when we left Tignes. It was all very impressive.

In Tignes, the "elitists" became softies and stayed in a hotel and slept in a bed. French breakfasts are generally a light affair of white bread, jam and coffee. They don't call it a "petit" dejeuner for nothing. Some non-French trekkers even carry supplementary meusli. From our experiences of cycling around France, we have seen the half-starved French madly driving home at noon for a more satisfying lunch. Thus it came as a real surprise when our buffet breakfast was varied and powered us for hours. With every step north, the mountains seem higher, there are more cows, the cheese gets harder, the crowds increase and the Asian toilets become less frequent.

The Col de Bresson was a long climb up from Landry which languishes at 777m. The GR5 joins up with the Tour of Mont Blanc (TMB) near the Col de Bonhomme. There, we saw plenty of human suffering as the crowds laboured up the pass. The temptation was to let our guard down when meeting people who were staring at their feet while toiling away but the bonjour police could be lurking anywhere. Smile and bonjour!

The impressive Chamonix-Mt Blanc area is like an alpine theme park. We fittingly, entered the valley trundling down another ski resort. Jane (UK 1993) kindly invited us to stay at her cozy chalet near Chamonix. It is a great base from which to explore the spectacular area and to eat and eat

Mt Blanc is Europe's response to Yosemite with much better public access: trains, cable cars and chairlifts provide quick mountain access to mountaineers and tourists alike. Standing in a long August Sunday téléphérique queue even feels like Disneyland. Our tent nights stalled in Chamonix as we stayed on at Jane's chalet and Sheila ushered in her knee recovery plan. She opted for a few téléphérique rides while Glenn sometimes huffed and puffed his way up and down including a 800m ascent in a respectable 50 minutes. The Chamonix area is justly popular, though the French complain it is too international. The glaciers and mountains are magnificent and the trip is worthwhile for the bread alone: we have become bread snobs.

We ventured through the Mt Blanc tunnel over to Courmeyer and Val Veny to another world, in the shadow of Monte Bianco; Italy. There, we found so much happiness on the trails - we were never sure whether it was the mountain views or simply the locals' ability to speak the lovely Italian language. It affected us all. At the camping ground, Italians roamed the grounds in bath robes and buffed their hairdo's in front of the plethora of mirrors before setting out on the mountain trails. In the evenings, they poured buckets of salt into the pasta pots and on their food while guitars played and wine disappeared. Italy is a joyous country.

TRAVEL NOTES

Walking a long distance trail provides a perspective on the landscape. We poke fun at the French notion of "balance" in the National Parks but is especially disappointing to see so much livestock in protected areas. The cows are happy with the lovely wildflowers, it looks quaint, it maintains the farmers' centuries old traditions and keeps the EU subsidies rolling in, consumers are happy ( there is no shortage of good cheese) and the roads allow plenty of public access. It works beautifully: it is only the flora and little critters that lose. We can really appreciate how new world countries such as Costa Rica, Canada, USA, Australia and NZ have been able to preserve and protect wilderness areas.

When Sheila plugs into an iPod on the trail, she goes into overdrive; a cross between advanced step class and a Tour de France time trial. Glenn struggles to keep the pace.

FOR THE RECORD

Most parapenters seen in the air at one time: 40 at Les Arcs
The weather: relatively dry but cool
GR5 banana index: 1.5-3 per USD (all from former French colonies)
2008 YTD tent nights: 159

NEXT
More cool alpine nights in France and Italy then perhaps a Swiss giggle and Swedish meatballs

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