Tour of the Queyras. Alan Castle

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      Alan has trekked in over 30 countries within Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australasia, and for 17 years led organised walking holidays in several European countries. A member of the British Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, he has written more than a dozen walking guidebooks, several on long-distance mountain routes in France. His longer solo walks include a grand traverse of the European Alps between Nice and Vienna (2430km/1510 miles), the pilgrims’ trail from Le Puy to Santiago de Compostela (1545km/960 miles) and a coast-to-coast across the French Pyrenees (870km/540 miles).

      A veteran of many long-distance high-level walks, Alan first encountered the European Alps as a schoolboy back in the late 1960s, when he cycled through them and climbed several of their more modest peaks. Since those early days he has returned many times, and his tally of long jaunts through these mountains includes the Tours of Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, Oisans, Vanoise, Grand Paradiso and Vercors, the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt, Alta Via 1 and 2 in the Dolomites, the Alpine Pass Route across Switzerland, and a complete traverse of the Austrian Alps along the E4 Alpen.

      Other Cicerone guides by Alan Castle

      Walks In Volcano Country – Auvergne and Velay, France

      Walking the French Gorges – Provence and the Ardèche

      The Brittany Coastal Path

      Walking in the Ardennes

      The River Rhine Trail

      Walking in Bedfordshire

      The John Muir Trail

      The Southern Upland Way

      The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail – Cévennes, France

      Alan also wrote the first and second editions of The Corsican High Level Route (1987, 1992) and A Pyrenean Trail (GR10) (1990, 1997).

      © Alan Castle 1990, 2009

      Second edition 2009

      ISBN-13: 978 1 85284 510 0

      First edition 1990

      ISBN-10: 1 85284 048 X

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All photographs by the author.

      To climb steep hills

      Requires slow pace at first.

      Shakespeare

      Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated,

      make a great part of earth, and he that has never seen them,

      must live unacquainted with much of the face of nature,

      and with one of the great scenes of human existence.

      Dr Johnson

      For Bebs

      Acknowledgements

      My wife, Beryl Castle, has always over the years given freely of her advice, support and encouragement during the planning, research and writing of my guidebooks, and for this book there was no exception. For this I am ever grateful. Beryl has also helped in the preparation of the sketch maps and height profiles for this guidebook. Thanks are also due to Jeff and Enid Wilson-Parr, who accompanied me on my second Tour of the Queyras, and made some useful additional notes.

      In addition, I thank Jonathan Williams and the team at Cicerone for their professionalism in publishing this and my other guidebooks.

      Advice to Readers

      Readers are advised that while every effort is taken by the author to ensure the accuracy of this guidebook, changes can occur which may affect the contents. It is advisable to check locally on such things as transport, accommodation and shops, but even rights of way can be altered.

      The publisher would welcome notes of any such changes.

      Front cover: Walkers on the GR58 about an hour out of Abriès

      International Distress Signal

      (Only to be used in an emergency)

      Six blasts on a whistle (and flashes with a torch after dark) spaced evenly for one minute, followed by a minute’s pause.

      Repeat until an answer is received. The response is three signals per minute followed by a minute’s pause.

      In an emergency the mountain rescue (secours en montagne) can be called on 04 92 22 22 22

      Note: Mountain rescues must be paid for – be insured.

      CONTENTS

       Preface to the Second Edition

       INTRODUCTION

       The French Alps

       The Queyras

       Walking in the French Alps

       Grandes Randonnées

       The Walking Tour of the Queyras, GR58 and GR541

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