Best hiking/walking base in France for October?
Replies: 4 - Last Post: Oct 3, 2012 3:04 AM Last Post By: neckervd
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Best hiking/walking base in France for October?
Hi everyone!I'm looking to spend a week somewhere in France and all I really want to do is hike as much as possible. I'm looking for a little town or village that would lend itself to lots of day hikes - something similar to Grasmere in the Lake District or Boulder, CO, even. Ideally, I'd like to find a town that's big enough to have a supermarket or two, is safe/pretty, and is well connected to the rest of the world by public transport. I am not able to set off on multi-day hikes due to my job - need to be behind a computer every evening at 5. But that gives me lots of daylight to work with.
I'm open to anywhere in France (or, really, elsewhere in Europe) that fits the bill. At the moment I'm thinking of Vevey (I know that's in Switzerland) but am wondering if I'm missing something great in France. I am somewhat less interested in Provence and Corsica than I am in northern France (don't mind a bit of rain) but would really welcome any and all suggestions. I will be traveling in mid-October.
Thanks in advance for any ideas!
1
If you want a bit of forest and mountains with myriads of trails, somewhere in the Vosges area could be nice, with small-sized towns like Thann, Ribeauvillé, Guebwiller, Munster, Gérardmer... Or simply Colmar, Mulhouse, on the main railway line. All places are accessible by bus or local trains. Mid-october is beautiful when the vineyards are gold and red, and the trees start changing colors.2
October is often fine in the Alps: excellent view, usually dry (although weather is always unpredictable in the Alps), relatively warm at sunny slopes (11am until 5pm).Chamonix would be a nice place, but almost all cableways are actually closed.
Idem for Verbier, Champery-Avoriaz etc.,
No running cableways at Crans-Montana too, but this extremely sunny place is at an altitude of 1500 metres already, with tons of hiking trails starting just there. 12 min by cablecar from Sierre city center.
At Zermatt, Saas Fee, Riederalp/Bettmeralp, almost everything will run, the Coop supermarkets there are rather on the small side, however. Trains/buses at least every hour.
If you want to stay at a place with all kind of shops, supermarkets, etc. try Sion, Sierre or Brig. Direct hiking trails from these places through the wineyards up to the Alpages, cablecars, cableways (gondolas) and buses up to 1500 to 2000 metres at least every hour. thousands of kms of well signmarked hiking trails.
http://www.brig-belalp.ch/en/index.php
http://www.sierre-salgesch.ch/en/Place/
http://www.chandolin.ch/fr/Regions/
http://www.crans-montana.ch/ete/en/
http://siontourisme.ch/index.php/en
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/bettmeralp.html
http://map.wanderland.ch/?lang=en
