From Briançon
to Larche
The GR5 to Ceillac
The GR5 runs in an enclosed valley near a dirt road as it climbs
to the Col des Ayres. You will stay in a gîte d'étape
or in hotels that are a 7 to 7 1/2 hours' walk from Briançon.
Another 2 1/2 hours of walking will bring you to Chateau Queyras,
and from here another 5, to Ceillac. Thus Ceillac is a 2 or 3 days
away from Briançon..
My difficult but thrilling route to Ceilliac
My unofficial route takes 3 days and will test you physically,
but the views on the first day will amaze you while increasing your
familiarity with French military history; and the bushwhacking that follows as you descend, among the marmots, is also an exciting experience not repeated elsewhere. Purchase a 1:25,000 IGN
topographical map of the area, reference 3536OT, before setting
off. Do not take this route in bad weather!
 Leave
the upper town (the Cité Vauban) of Briançon (1,290
meters or 4,300 feet) by a gate on its south side. Follow the road
downhill a bit, and cross the deep river gorge (a stupendous view
down). Climb in switchbacks up the road passing the first of the
forts on your left, the Ancien Fort des Trois Têtes. The road
continues up the hill to a junction at 1,435 meters (where the GR5D
crosses from Fontenil) Cross this, and continue southward (up) to
Fort Christiane. The path continues up the hill, sometimes on the
dirt road, sometimes not, in multiple switchbacks. Your views become
longer and longer, as though in an airplane taking off.
After passing several fortifications, you reach the Ancient Fort
de L'Ínferne at 2,300 meters (7,500 feet), 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above Briancon, and eventually
the Ancient Fort du Gondran and the Sommet des Anges. Each fort
apparently had the job of protecting the one below it from attack.
You can see some prison cells in one of the forts. Briançon
now looks tiny, and you can spot the many glaciers of the Ecrins
peaks. With sightseeing, and assuming you are fit, allow 4 hours for this climb.
From the Sommet Des Anges, you need to bushwhack your way down
through meadows filled with marmots, passing to the right of a little
lake. Pick up the trail descending to La Chau, at 1,900 meters.
It is now a 6 kilometer walk along a level road to les Fonds, where
there is a good Gîte d'Étape. Allow 8 hours in total.
(As an alternative, you could walk from the Sommet Des Anges
down to Cerviéres, where there are several hotels. If so,
you can cross the Col d'Izoard, and pick up the GR5 at Brunissard.)
The following day, you follow the GR58 and stay in Ville Vieille
(with a good gîte d'étape, or Chateau Queyras (GR5). The
next day continue to Ceillac.
Ceillac to Larche
Ceillac has the last food market before Larche.
From the porch of the gîte d'étape,
Fouillouse.
 Hikers
south of Ceillac going to Fouillouse have the choice between two shorter days and one
long day. The refuge and the gîte d'étape at Maljasset
are about a 6 hours walk from Ceillac, and it is 3 1/2 hours from Maljasset to Fouillouse. It takes almost 9 hours to reach
the lovely Gîte d'étape at Fouillouse in one stretch (saving one-half hour by bypassing Maljasset).
The Maljasset-Fouillouse section of the GR5 is mainly upon a level, low-traffic road,
with rural surroundings, and frankly, it is one of the most boring parts of the total GR5. My easygoing hiking companion hitched
a ride to Fouillouse.
You might want to note the sign over the graveyard in Fouillouse, stating
in French that "We were what you are, and you will be what we
are". From Fouillouse, a pleasant five hour walk brings you to Larche,
where you have a choice of the relatively sumptuous Gîte de
Larche (for a gite) and some new hotels.
Rhododendrons along trail between Fouillouse and
Larche.
Italian Routes to Larche from Maljasset bypassing Fouillouse
A correspndant from Germany has called my attention to several possible routes through Italy from Maljasset, discussed in a book on the GR5 in German by Philipp Bachman. Since you must stop in Maljasset, they require three days from Celliac to Larche. They bypass the mainly boring 11.5 kilometer segment along the road to Fouillouse. I discuss them in the following paragraph, but until I have tried these routes myself, I have no opinion.
From Maljasset (1919 m), following the "Tour de Chambeyron" route, the first day, in about 6 hours, you cross the Col de Mary (2641 m) to the refuge at Campo Base (1640m). The second day, passing by the villages of Chippera and Saretto (about 1,500 m), you have a choice of three routes to Larche (1664m)-- either via the Col de Sautron (2685m) (on a GR de Pays) or direct via the Col des Monges (Munie in Italian) (2439m), or following the Tour de Chambeyron route and again crossing the Col des Monges, in about 7 to 9 hours depending upon the route chosen. . All but the very beginning of these Italian routes are fairly well covered on the IGN map 3538ET; Maljasset is on map 3537ET.
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