Hiking in France
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Scenic Autumn Day Hike Following the Little Yellow Train Railway and two Beautiful Bridges in Pyrenees-Orientales, France
In this trip report we are willing to share with you one of our favorite one-day hikes that we did in the late October in Eastern Pyrenees, France. It is a 17km hike that starts in Thues-Entre-Valls following the railway of the Yellow Trail for a while with the two biggest and most beautiful bridges, passing by the waterfalls and lots of forest paths and finishing off in Mont-Louis village. We started our day by taking the Yellow Train in order to get from Cerdanya valley to the Thues-Entre-Valls town. It was a nice 40 minute ride to do on such bright October day. We could enjoy amazing views from…
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Wonderful Secret Valley Discovered in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day Hike in Vallée de l’Orri
In this trip report we are excited to share the one day hike in Vallée de l’Orri, Pyrenees-Orientales, France that we did at the end of September. It is a 20km hike starting from Fontpedrouse town going through the hot springs “Les Bains de Saint-Thomas”, then doing a circuit around the valley, get to the Planes village and finishing at the fortified site of Mont-Louis. Vallee d’Orri was a completely new area for us to explore as we have never hiked before in this area. We expected it to be a moderate difficulty with the elevation gain of 500m with several uphills and downhills just looking at the map. But…
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CHILL OUT and EASY Level Trail on Foggy October Day in Pyrenees | Tour du Capcir – Bolquere
On our final third day of the Tour du Capcir hike we walked 15 kms from Pla de Mir to Jaca d’en Calvet Lake then Pla de Barres campsite, Etang de Ticou and arrived to the village Bolquere. So for that day we planned to hike around 15kms and get to the village Bolquere walking through the several lakes in the area. Studying the map we saw that the day won’t be very challenging with only 350m of downhill and mostly flat terrain. On the weather forecast there was a probability of rain later in the day so we hoped to be able to do most of the distance before…
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Tour of Pyrenees Mountain Lakes on atmospheric autumn day | Day 2 of Tour du Capcir Lake Vallserra-Lake d’Aude
On the second day of our Tour du Capcir hike we did around 20kms and walked by the lake Vallserra, got up to Estany de la Balmeta Lake, Cabana de la Balmeta and lake d’Aude. We woke up pretty early with the cow’s bells pasturing all around our camp spot. The night was quite chilly and cold especially in the morning hours and even though we had all of our fleece clothes and warm jackets on us we didn’t escape the cold. We think the temperature dropped down to less than 5 degrees Celsius. But there was almost no wind and quiet weather so it helped a lot. For that…
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Amazing Alpine landscapes found in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day 1 of Tour du Capcir from Formigueres to Refuge Camporells
It was the first day of our hiking trip in the Capcir area in Eastern-Pyrenees, France. We started hiking from the town of Formigueres, then got up to Estany and refuge Camporells and finally descended down and camped at the refuge Lladura. We had intention to hike in the area of Capcir for a long time and we were very excited to discover a new area in Eastern-Pyrenees for us because we didn’t know it very well. We wanted to explore the Estany and refuge Camporells, Puig del Pam, lake Balmet, Mont Llaret, Roc and lake d’Aude. And our plan was to do 3 hiking citcuits in 3 days doing…
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The Easiest Peak to Conquer in Pyrenees-Orientales, France – Pic dels Moros (2138m) | Amazing One-Day Hike
In this trip report we share with you our one day hike in the Pyrenees-Orientales, France. As in the year of 2020 we did hike mostly in the region where we live in Pyrenees, this trail was another discovery of ours. It is a 12-14kms long circuit hike starting and finishing in Font-Romeu town leading to Pic dels Moros (2138m). We expected it to be easy to moderate difficulty and having around 450m of elevation gain. The trail started to go in the dense pine forest following the wide dirt farmer’s routes. On the sides of the route we could see a lot of mushrooms hiding in the needles and…
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Final Day of Tour du Canigou – Our Final Thoughts and Tips |Day 5 -Pla Guillem – Refuge Marialles
It was the final 5th day of the Tour du Canigou trail for us when we made 18kms and 1700m of elevation change from the Refuge Devesa to Pla Guillem, passed Refuge Marialles and then finally arrived to the village Casteil. The morning of that day at Ravin Comail was a bit cloudy and foggy but the sky was clearing up and it was promising to be a bright day. We didn’t have a good night sleep because the place where we set up the tent wasn’t very flat and had lots of uneven ground and also it was quite chilly and even our warm clothes didn’t help. We thought…
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The most beautiful old beech forests on Tour du Canigou in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day 4-Refuge Sant Guillem- Ravin Comail
It was our 4th day of Tour du Canigou trail in Eastern-Pyrenees, France when we hiked 16 kms from Riuferrera, walked by refuge Devesa and refuge Saint Guillem, climbed to Serre Vernet and arrived to Ravin Comail. The start of the day was peaceful and calm and so was the previous night. We had a great sleep and rested well in the quiet idyllic spot we found the day before. It was quite flat, full of beech trees protecting from the wind and soft dry leaves on the ground creating a nice base for the tent. Also there was no wind and no sounds at night so we had the…
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Scenic place to camp on Tour du Canigou trail in Pyrenees-Orientales, France | Day 3 Refuge Pinatell, Col de la Cirera, Refuge Batere
In this trip report we are sharing our third day of Tour du Canigou trail in Eastern-Pyrenees, France when we hiked 17kms from Refuge Pinatell to the Refuge Batere and further down the trail. The evening before we had a hard time choosing our camp spot because of extremely uneven and hilly terrain with lots of rocks. And at night we realized that it was a pretty bad side hill so we couldn’t sleep really well. Also the temperature dropped down to 5 degrees Celsius and it was quite chilly. We did regret not having our warmer sleeping bags with us as we took our normal light summer ones. It…
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Extreme climb to the Sacred Catalan Mountain Pic du Canigou (2784m) | Day 2 of Tour du Canigou
In this trip report we are sharing our second day of hiking Tour du Canigou when we made 15kms, hiked from Traversee du Cady to los Masos, passed by the refuge Cortalets and climbed to the peak du Canigou (2875m). The night was quite cold and even though it wasn’t windy but the temperature dropped down to 5 degrees Celsius. In the morning up until the sun came up on the sky we were wearing the hats and jackets. We woke up early, quickly ate our breakfast and packed everything. We were very excited for this day of hiking because we were going to climb to the peak and enjoy…
