What
is the Grande Randonnée Cinq?
The GR5, also designated as Europe 2 (E2), is perhaps the premier
long distance hiking trail of Western Europe. GR stands for "Grande
Randonnée", which in French means a very long distance
hike, or hiking trail.
Unlike the American long distance trails such as the Appalachian trail or the Pacific Crest Trail,. the GR5 passes through many villages and towns, and lies on the doorstep of towns with great tourist interest. GR5 hikers normally stay in huts, lodges or hotels rather than in tents. The experience is more social and civilized; the cost is somewhat higher.
The GR5 begins at Hoek van Holland on the North Sea, and ends in
Southern France at the Mediterranean. It joins together many existing
hiking trails, and a few new sections. It is laid out to traverse
along, or to cross as many mountain ridges and highlands as possible—in
Belgium, the Ardienne mountains; in Luxembourg, the hills by the
rivers; in France, the Lorraine plateau, the Vosges Mountains of
Alsace, the hills and gorges of the Jura, and, as the icing on the
cake, the central spine of the Alps along the border between France
and Switzerland, and further south , France and Italy..
The map below (a screen shot of a Google map) shows the entire GR5 (and GR52 ending). Each segement is 6 walking days of an average of approximately 5 or 6 hours. Assuming one rest day out of seven, and with the one-half week segment before lake Geneva, a total of 16 1/2 weeks would be needed to reach Nice.
Click the map to access a Google Maps interactive version. The detailed routing is very approximate.
An average walker will require about four months of walking to do the 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers) (which includes an allowance of one day of rest each week). But if you walk on the GR5, you should really take the variant
of the GR5 called the GR52, which leads to Menton on the Mediterranean
in a couple of extra days, rather than the GR5 itself to Nice. The
GR52 provides a much more spectacular finish.
Everybody (almost) walks the GR5 from the north to the south. Probably,
this is because they want to be walking from the the cold, rainy,
grayer weather of Holland to the warm, dry, sunny Mediterranean;
and also, to finish up their trip with the excitement of the Alps
and a Mediterranean arrival.
This
Site: The Alpine GR5, from Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) to the
Mediterranean, known as the Grand Traverse of theAlpes .
This Internet Site only covers the Alpine GR5 - 52, from north
to south, as it crosses through the highest part of the French Alps,
along the borders of Switzerland and Italy. ( I do include some references for obtaining maps of the rest of the GR5.)
The spine of the Alps runs along the French-Swiss and French-Italian border. Thus, rivers drain to the west or east,
that is, across the route of the north- and south-running GR5. This means that you will experience long ascents
as you climb from the river valleys up to the high passes, and long
descents as you hike down to the next big river. Passes traversed
along the GR5 - GR52 are at 6,000 to 10,000 feet (1,800 - 3,000
meters), but the river valleys crossed can be as low as 1,500 to
3,000 feet (400 - 900 meters).
These vast ups and downs mean not only that you, the hiker, will
have a difficult walk, but also that you will traverse and see a great variety
of beautiful scenery and different ecosystems—from pastures to woods to sub-alpine meadows,
to glaciers. In the lower lands you will visit areas full of villages
and life, while in the heights you can be completely remote from
civilization
The Grand Traverse of the Alps: Each segment below represents 6 days of hiking (and a day of rest). The yellow segment is the alternative starting point, and the purple segment is the GR52 ending that I highly recommend.
Click on the map below to bring up a Google Maps interactive version (trail routings are highly approximate).
 The
hiker of the GR5 Grand Traverse of the Alps also will experience a great
variety of scenery due to decreasing rainfall as one walks from
north to south.. The hillsides of Chablais, rising above Lake Geneva,
are a lush green; and dairy cows graze by the trail as it passes
through Switzerland. On the other hand, in the south, on the GR52
variant of the GR5, you pass through the Vallée des
Merveilles (Valley of Marvels), of strikingly sculpted bare rock, without vegetation.
In between these extremes, near Briançon, you l traverse beautiful semi-dry
woods of larch trees, and alpine meadows of tiny rhododendrons.
On the dorstep of the Mediterranean, you will visit still another zone,
where rain falls in a temperate climate, protected from northerly
winds by the high Alps that you have crossed. As you hike down to the Mediterranean at Menton, the sparse Mediterranean
maquis shrubs, and the lush hillsides of semi-tropical plants willo be a delight to the eye.
Solitude and Wilderness
On a sunny day in the northern Alps, solitude on the trail is rare.
People live in the northern Alps, or visit, much more often than in the mountains further
south. The northern Alps are more easily accessible to the population
centers of Europe, and are much more fertile. In the northern Alps
there is no wilderness. Villages, chalets and
pastures lie close by one-another. The Vanoise National Park is
natural and wild, but still close-at-hand to civilization, and certainly
full of hikers. None-the-less, except in the tourist towns, you can feel
on your own. It is rare to see hikers in front of you or behind
you on the trail, but you probably will pass day hikers traveling in the opposite direction several times an hour, or several times a day.
On the other hand, in the southern Alps hikers are few and
far between. Parts of the high and arid Mercantour Park are
as wild and isolated as you can get in France, and might even be called a small "wilderness". Through these wilder areas in the southern Alps, particularly off the main GR5 route or
well before or after the main hiking season, you could go all day without meeting another person.
Wild animals
It is quite possible to see several types of wild animals—
at least I have on my trips: Chamois, Bouquetins ( wild Ibexes)
, several types of deer, many kinds of birds, and the ubiquitous
marmot.
When to Go
July, August, and September! See the page that discusses this in detail.
How long does the Alpine Crossing take?
You can walk comfortably from Lake Geneva
(Lac Léman) to Nice on the GR5, with a few rest days and
a few extra days in Chamonix, in about five weeks; many hikers who walk longer days and don't stop for recation have done it in four or less. Add a two or three extra days for the more spectacular finish at Menton.
Depending upon your routing, you will cover
about 700 - 850 kilometers (420 - 510 miles).
If you wish, you can divide your trip over several
years. See this page the most common break points,
and how to reach them .
Types
of Trekkers - Purists and Easygoers
The "Purists" are people like myself, who want to feel
proud that they walked "every inch" of the way from Lake
Geneva to the Mediterranean. Some purists may feel they have to
do this only upon the trails officially designated as the GR5, or
the GR52 (or GR 56 in the Vanoise Park)."Easygoers" (like a number of my friends who came along
with me on some parts of the GR5) feel they don't have to walk every
bit of the trail. If the day is too long, if the trail is less interesting,
or if the climb or descent is too arduous, they turn to motorized
transport: possibly they hitch a ride, take a bus or taxi, or use
a télépherique (i.e, a mountain lift comprising a
car suspended from a cable).This site is written from the point of view of a purist—but not a purist who sticks only to the GR5,GR52 and GR56, but includes
suggestions for easygoers.
Costs and Budget
For a non-resident of France, w alking the GR 5- GR 52 undoubtedly needs a bigger budget than
does the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail, first to get
to Europe, and then to pay for the costs of lodging. Nonetheless,
a GR5 hiking trip certainly costs much less than a European city
vacation or a commercially-guided biking or walking trek. The following
numbers will help you estimate the cost of your trip: Costs Train transportation from Paris to and from your trailheads should
cost less than 200€ (2009) per person, and less if
you are able to buy your train tickets from the French Railroad French
Internet Site and pick up your ticket at a railway station in France. For groups, it
may prove cheaper to rent a car each way. Avis, Hertz, and Europcar
may allow one-way rentals at no extra cost. Gas (petrol) costs around $5 or $6 a gallon ($1 -$1.25 a liter), but manual shift cars get typically about twice the gas mileage as in the United States. Remember that tolls can run 50 Euros from Paris to Switzerland or 100 Euros from Paris to French
Riviera. I personally enjoy taking the French high-speed trains, and would choose train over car for most trips..Another gateway to the GR5 Alpine Traverse could be Geneva, Switzerland.
From Geneva, it is not difficult or costly to reach the beginning
of the GR5 Alpine Traverse, but it is more difficult and costly
to get to midpoints and the endpoints on the Mediterranean.
You can walk the GR5-GR52 in an "accommodation-only style",
or in a "full service style", or (or in a mixture of the
two). Most refuges and gites provide a room for doing your own cooking.
Most also provide full service family meals or menus. Hotels provide
plans with only room, and often also a plan for half-pension (dinner
and breakfast), which costs about twice as much. In 2009, a night's lodging, per person, in a French Club Alpin (CAF) refuge
(hut) , not including food, at medium altitude, cost from €16 - €20 per person for a middle-altitude refuge and up to €25 for a high altitude refuge. The lodging cost, but not the
food cost, of a Club Alpin Refuges is only half of this if you are a member
of the French Club Alpin or a true mountaineering club in your home country
(but not the Appalachian Mountain Club or Sierra Club). Joining
the Club Alpin Français costs about 90 €, (without the revue or insurance) so it would
take roughly 10 nights in CAF refuges to pay the cost of membership.(see this page for info in French on joining on-line the Ile-de-France branch of the CAF.)Private refuges and gîtes cost more than the CAF ones, but
still less than 20 Euros per person. Decent
one or two star hotels cost about 30 - 35 Euros per person in a
double room.If you take dinner and breakfast as well as lodging, gîtes
and refuges cost per person about 35 to 40 Euros per night,
while half-pension in hotels cost 50 to 60 Euros per person in the
northern Alps and about 40 to 50 Euros in the southern Alps, a little
less (1994 prices).
Budget: A budget for the GR5 could be less than 40 Euros a day per person if
you are going to stay entirely at refuges and gîtes d'étap,
and do your own cooking or eat out inexpensively (at pizzeria's, etc.)If you are going the full service route with a mixture of
refuges, gîtes, and hotels, and if you spend, say, 10 €
each day on lunch and 5 Euros on incidentals, a budget of 65
Euros per person per day should be attainable. Thus, a two week trip along the GR5, including train transportation
but excluding airfare to Europe, might range from less than 700
Euros to 1,100 Euros, or more.
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