Comments on: ItinÃ©raires de Grande RandonnÃ©e en France

By: andy

andy — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:02:31 +0000

David â€” that would be one hell of a walk. Where about in the Midlands are you? If this plan gets anywhere near fruition it would make for a good podcast interview!

Check out the Outdoors Station on google.

By: David McDowell

David McDowell — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:53:02 +0000

Andy – I stumbled on your blog whilst Googling for “Grande Randonnee”, having had just the same idea as yourself, namely to walk from Calais down through France either to the Italian or Spanish border (once I have completed my plan to walk from my home in the Midlands to Dover, that is). Nice to know that it can be done according to the map, which your blog has spurred me on to order (like you, I had been thinking about doing so for several years). Pas-de-Calais tourist board website doesn’t even mention the GR paths running through their departement.
It’s also nice to know that I’m not the only one with (what my wife would consider to be) an eccentric solitary hotel room pastime !
David

By: andy

andy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:01:05 +0000

Email despatched!

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:54:04 +0000

Andy – Can you give me the details of your GR map, please (publisher/map name)? I would love to buy a copy and am living in Canada. I looked for an all encompassing GR map while I was in France about 2 years ago and I looked here about a year ago without success. Thanks, Leslie Ann

By: andy

andy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:45:52 +0000

I think if I wanted help with navigation a GPS might have been better than the dog …

.. but what do I know !!!

By: Peewiglet

Peewiglet — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:45:17 +0000

Great tip, thanks! I feel sure that a copy will be winging its way Chez Peewiglet in the not too distant future.

I’m hoping I can teach the dog to read the map. It’s why I got her, in fact. If she can’t do it either then I suppose there’s always the cat…

By: andy

andy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:25:54 +0000

Sounds great Patrick. One day I’ll get round to walking some of that coastline.

By: Patrick Vincent

Patrick Vincent — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:06:47 +0000

Faulty link. Should be:

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/stock/gr34-les-abers-le-chemin-de-phares-157580/

By: Patrick Vincent

Patrick Vincent — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:05:08 +0000

Andy,

I just took a look at your blog by chance – having just come back from 10 days on the GR34 (Brittany coastal path), starting at Roscoff and heading west!

The French produce thin (and lightweight!) guidebooks for all these paths, which consist of excerpts of 50K maps, practical info, route descriptions and a bit of history (in French). You can buy these at Stanfords (http://www.stanfords.co.uk/stock/gr34-les-abers-le-chemin-de-phares-157580/).

I did about 200km, from Roscoff round to a place on the West coast called Lanildut. You walk a lot on dunes (it reminded me of Montrose at the end of the Challenge) beside endless beautiful beaches with rocky granite outcrops leading out to sea. On the other hand, it is quite built up and there are a lot of holiday bungalows passed on the way.

You also normally pass about 2 or 3 campsites every day, so you don’t really need to plan much in advance. The state-run ‘municipal’ ones are very cheap. One of them cost only 3 Euros for the night! The average I paid was about 6 or 7 Euros per night.

I had a very relaxing time and would recommend it.

3 years ago I took the ferry to St Malo and walked West to Morlaix (just short of Roscoff). That stretch has more cliffs and also lots of nice seaside resort towns that you pass through. Not as quiet as it is further west, but more lively.

Patrick