French National and Regional Parks

Mercantour is the kingdom of the Wolves in France. It is also well know for its prehistoric engraving in “La Vallée des Merveilles”. At the Italian border, the park offers a lot of hiking paths. The biodiversity is rich with 58 species of mammals and 2000 species of plant. Mercantour is a beautiful place to discover.

If you want to see wildlife you must go to la Vanoise. The Via Alpina and the GR5 offers very beautiful path to long hike. If you wish to day hike you will also find plenty of possibilities. This park is a heaven to walk and all the refuge it owns will allow you to hike lightly.

Biggest park of metropolitan France, Cévennes offers beautiful landscapes. The well-known “Chemin e Stevenson” will bring you toward forests, plains and lonely tableland.

The Pyrenean mountain range and its 450km offers a wonderful playground if you like hiking and trekking. The most courageous will leave for 40 days from the Atlantic ocean to the Mediterranean sea along the GR10 or the Pyrenean High Route. The National Park is located at the heart of the range, this is a perfect place to watch wildlife.

The Calanques National Park is an awesome place close to Marseille. It takes 30min to reach it by bus from the city center and here you are on absolutely magnificent coves with unreal blue water. There are many hikes to do there. If you like climbing it will be paradise for you as there are many many routes accessible almost all year.

A foot on water, the other one on ground, the National Park of Port-Cros is sitting on the south of France sunlight. You can discover this park on foot or on water the both offering wonderful beauty.

Réunion Island is an amazing playground ! Just speaking about hiking, there are kilometers and kilometers of path, enough to hike during a lifespan. The GR-R2 hiking path is one of the most beautiful because it crosses most of the Reunion’s landscapes and climates. The visit of Mafate “Circus” is amazing. You can also easily climb on top of the Indian Ocean with the ascension on the Piton des Neiges and its 3070m. In addition to hiking, you can practice almost all the outdoor sports there and La Réunion has also a very rich culture. If you don’t know this island you really should visit it you will be enchanted.

With its 2 millions hectares of area, the Amazonian Park of French Guyana is the biggest park in France. Proctecting a huge area with an amazing biodiversity, the park is only accessible by plan or by boat. One of the main mission of this place is to fight against illegal gold extraction. The park is also protecting human cultures as the Teko, the Wayapi or the Apalaï.

The National Park of Guadeloupe is a marine park and a ground one. It has a strong endemic population on both sides. Hiking in this park will make you discovering volcanism but also tropical forest.

The Hauts Plateaux du Vercors are an exceptional place. I had the chance to discover them on the occasion of my Traversée du Vercors. The isolation and the beauty of the landscapes accompany the walker. Water is a rare commodity that needs to be learned to manage and save. Place of French  resistance during WWII you will find some traces of this sad past. The small towns of Corrençon-en-Vercors and Villard de Lans are quite nice in any case and represent a good base camp if you want to hike in summer and winter.

The Queyras is a beautiful park on the Italian border. Its location makes it less popular than others and that’s good! Few people are met on the paths and one can enjoy the surrounding nature. The GR58 will take you around the massif and you will discover the main landscapes that can be found there.

The Island of beauty is aptly named! The mountains feet in the water, an exceptional place for hiking. The legendary GR20 is the most worthy representative, but in high season it’s a bit of a highway. There are, of course, many other paths to explore in order to discover this beautiful country with rich culture and heritage.

The Morvan is an area rich but fragile. This granite massif is covered with groves, forests but also with a vast aquatic system. Hiking can discover this beautiful region through the crossing of the Morvan (GR13) from Vézelay to Autun. A region to discover just 2h30 from Paris.

The Verdon is well known for its canyon. High place for kayaking and climbing, summer attendance is sometimes difficult to reconcile with the preservation of the environment. Still, these canyons, the highest in Europe, are beautiful and are worth visiting. But the Verdon is also the Plateau du Valensole, the Artuby, the hills of Haut Var, … as many diverse landscapes to discover and explore on foot.

Halfway between sea and mountains, the Regional Natural Park of the Alps is located in the foothills of the Alps. We will find in the landscapes and wildlife, mountain and Mediterranean influences. The flora is of an extreme diversity so that one finds on this territory a third of the French flora. You will be able to discover the Park thanks to beautiful GR like the GR4. Speleology enthusiasts will not be left out because the Prealps hide 140km of accessible underground galleries.

Second Natural Park to have been created in France, the Regional Natural Park of Armorique offers a surprising diversity of landscapes. Indeed the park covers the islands of the Iroise Sea (Ouessant, Molène, …), the Crozon Peninsula and the Arrée Mountains. You will discover coastal environments typical of Bretagne but also the remains of an old mountain chain so the summit culminates at 385m nowadays with Roc’h Ruz. The “Customs Route” – le Chemin des Douaniers (GR34) will take you to the nearest coastal strip. For my part I have a particular affection for the surroundings of Camaret and its superb cliffs.