Walking Holidays
France

Auvergne

The Haute Loire, in the southern Auvergne in the Massif Central provides the walker with a truly unique experience in la France Profonde. If you like peaceful surroundings, solitude, and timeless rural scenes then this is the walking holiday for you. For the most part a gently undulating plateau of farmland provides for gentle walking across a remote and wild scene whose seemingly endless views leave you with a sense of horizontal vertigo. These wide open spaces are punctuated by small volcanic hills (known as Sucs), circular lakes, woodland and secluded valleys with tumbling streams. As you go south east so you gradually rise to the Mont Mézenc (4th summit in the Massif Central), making the department the second most elevated on average in France. The eastern edge of the plateau is broken in a spectacular fashion as the slopes fall away into the Ardeche, providing breathtaking views. Traditional sturdy stone buildings, covered in stone tiles or thatch, pepper the landscape making for a pretty scene. The flora is colourful and typical of high mountain pastures.Your walk starts and finishes in Puy en Velay, the remarkable world heritage town, known for its volcanic spires impossibly topped by religious monuments.

Holiday Profile

8 nights/7 days: 6 days independent walking in a circuit between guest houses

Dates

Everday of week subject to availability from 15 May to 15 October . Outside of those periods, please contact us.

Walking Profile & Grade

The walks average 15 to 22 km over gently undulating terrain. Individual ascents and descents are generally no more than 250m at a time. Mixture of paths, tracks and minor roads. The paths are generally good, although they can be rough and stony in places. The holiday is suitable for the occasional walker as well as those who walk more regularly. The walk is relatively long for the grade, although the ascents and descents are relatively gentle. Mont Mezenc reaches a height of 1753m.

+

This walking holiday is graded moderate to challenging plus. You should have experience of multi-day walking in the hills and be in reasonable health. See more information about walking grades..

Accommodation & Meals

Each night you'll be staying in a different guest house; either B&B or Auberge. They are 2 and 3 star equivalent in quality, offering authentic and comfortable accommodation. They are historic properties that have been lovingly restored where you'll be reserved a warm and generous welcome and enjoy home cooked fresh cuisine.

When to Travel

Our Tranquil Auvergne self-guided walking holiday in the Auvergne is available from 15 May to 15 October. Although this is not a high altitude holiday some walks do go above 1500m in altitude where snow could still be present mid May if spring weather conditions have been nice. From late May onwards there should be far less risk of snow. Nevertheless, you have the choice of walks so the holiday is possible even if there is late snow in May. The weather in the Auvergne generally is more settled during the summer months, although unsettled or stormy weather is possible at any time. The liveliest period in terms of tourists and fellow walkers is from Mid July to mid August. End of May and June are the best months for wild flowers on the mountains. See more details abouth the average Auvergne weather conditions.

Navigation, Walking Notes & Maps

Most of the walks have a variety of waymarkings. There are several GR or grande Randonnée which cross the area. The GR4, GR30 and GR441 all cross the region. These long distance trails are well way-marked with red and white markings. There are also a number of signposts along the trails, which indicate directions and place names. In addition, most of the other non-GR trails are marked with other waymarkings, usually yellow.

The walking trails are on clear mountain paths, tracks or mino roads. There are limited sections of trail where the paths are less well-defined, where care will be required with navigation. Our walking notes are detailed (more information here) and easy to follow. They also include information about the sites which can be explored along the route. We supply one walking guide per person on this holiday. As well as the detailed walking notes we supply walking maps. You'll be provided with a detailed 1:25,000 walking map.

Luggage Transfers

On this walking holiday your main luggage is transferred between guest houses so you only have to carry a day rucksack with picnic lunch (supplied by the guest houses and included in the holiday price), water and spare clothes, waterproofs, camera etc. On this holiday a local taxi company is responsible for transporting your main luggage. We use the same company throughout the walking holiday, so if you have any specific requests you can ask the driver at the beginning of your trip. Please limit the weight of your bags where possible to 20kg.

Travel Info

By Train

Eurostar and the TGV run trains from London to Lyon Part-Dieu. Take intercity train to St Etienne. Change and take either bus run by regional train company (TER) or take a train to Puy en Velay station and a shorter bus trip from there, again run by the train company. The bus stop is close to your accommodation in Puy en Velay.

Flight Options

The closest airports are Lyon St Exupery & Avignon. The airlines Easy Jet, Flybe and British Airways have scheduled flights from the UK - Luton, Birmingham, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Heathrow - to Lyon St Exupery airport. Regular flights from a number of UK airports to Avignon.

• €1145 
• Prices per person based on 2 sharing
• Loyalty scheme reduction applies for returning customers (see terms and conditions)