The 9 best spots where to go hiking in France

Do you feel the urge to immerse yourself in the beauty of the landscapes of the Hexagon? Here are the 9 best hiking spots in France!

Who never did a hike? France is a country with known and recognized beauty, a beauty that deploys through a wide variety of landscapes. From high majestic mountains to the sweet Mediterranean coast, to the rich valleys or even the oceanic lands, there are many prisms through which one can discover and admire it.

Do you want to impregnate this incredible natural heritage? France is home to many hiking trails that allow you to explore the country's most beautiful sites. Take a break in your daily life and come back to the essentials by leaving for their discovery. Safety above all: Don’t forget the preparation of your hiking equipment!

Where to start? To give you ideas, here are the 9 best hiking spots in France.

1. The Queyras

The Tour de Queyras sweeps the landscapes of great beauty in the heart of the Hautes-Alpes. Welcome to the paradise of hikers! Its alpine trails are particularly renowned, thus perfectly maintained among the most accessible in France. The Queyras Natural Regional Park contains breathtaking landscapes.

The Queyras is inhabited by many protected animal species. You will certainly cross a few chamois, eagles and other marmots. What about the dahut? We're letting you go looking for him...

Amazing views await you. They offer sometimes lunar landscapes, alternate between mineral valleys bathed in electric blue lakes and resinous forests. The cultural heritage is not left behind. On your road you will find typical mountain villages, sheltering some of the most beautiful French mountain chalets.

2. The Jura

The Jura is a destination of choice for hikers and other nature lovers. A long-time unoccupied wilderness, it houses many hiking trails. They allow you to discover all the wealth of this department located at the border of the Switzerland .

In the Jura you can walk high mountain paths and admire wonderful views of the Alps and on sumptuous lakes, including Lake Geneva. In fact, the department is hosting much of the Lakes region , which allows you to discover many stretches of water through a series of very beautiful hikes. Finally, the Jura is also visiting for its numerous cascades, including the famous Herisson stunts . Don’t hesitate to go hiking in the Jura in the middle of winter! You won't be disappointed.

Here are some hiking tours in the Jura:

• the Trail of the Combes makes you browse combes and alpages for 13 kilometers. You pass through the Borne to the Lion, at the foot of the Crêt de Chalam;
• the Trail of the Crêt de Chalam takes you to the tops to admire a magnificent 360-degree panorama;
• the Crêt de la Neige is the highest peak of Jura and allows you to enjoy an incredible view of the Alps;
• the Herisson waterfalls pass along a pleasant path accessible to the whole family.

3. La Bretagne

Thanks to its atmosphere tinted with legends and mysteries, Brittany is one of the best hiking spots in France. Its landscapes with so particular beauty have a cachet that you will not find anywhere else. If it is not here that you will see the most impressive hiking spots in France, you will surely be charmed by its natural heritage at the end of the world.

The Trail des Douaniers stretches over 1,800 kilometres along the Breton coastline, allowing you to reach Mont-Saint-Michel from the Arzal dam, while enjoying almost all along the coastline view.

Browse also forest of Brocéliande , theatre of arthurian legends. Along the trail you will discover centuries-old trees, lakes, megaliths, and even the tomb of Merlin!

4. The Calanques

Head south of France! The Calanques National Park houses unique geological formations bathed by the Mediterranean Sea, offering visitors a landscape of incomparable beauty, making it one of the best hiking spots in France.

GR98-51 lets you discover the calanques among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, along a 25-kilometre trail. Take two days to enjoy its ochre cliffs, crystalline water, wild coves and rich biodiversity. Scratch the Cap Canaille, Europe’s tallest cliff, to admire a superb view, discover the unusual hole of the blower located on the Port-Miou calanque, go to the discovery of the Walkyries wood that inspired Wagner, and much more! However, some passages are technical.

5. The tower of the Auvergne lakes

The Auvergne is a region full of preserved wild landscapes, an ideal playground for hikers. The tower of the Auvergne lakes sees a great diversity of these through a loop of nearly 200 kilometers. At the heart of the Massif Central, discover the volcanoes, forests and lakes of the Auvergnats, but also the cultural richness of the region through its traditions and heritage.

Take 10 days to live great moments of escape through the Tour des lacs d’Auvergne. This is what awaits you:

• volcanoes: the famous Puits Chain, but also the Dore Mountains and the Cézallier;
• of the lakes : Chambon, Pavin, Servies, Lastiouilles, etc.
• a rich cultural heritage: between charming villages and a gastronomy to fall on the ground (be careful with the potée or the truffle auvergnate);
• a unique fauna and flora.

6. The Balconies of the Ice Sea in Chamonix

The Balconies of the Ice Sea in Chamonix offer you a total immersion in high-montagne, in a brutally wild and undisturbed landscape, without being particularly difficult to cross. An ideal entry into the world of mountaineering...

Here, you crowd the surface of the Glace Sea glacier, the white eminence of the Alpine country, and walk along its balconies. All around you, snowy peaks and ridges dominate the valley, giving the landscape of the Grand Nord allure. Nearly 20 kilometers of hiking await you, between one and three days of walking, depending on your rhythm.

7. The Way of Santiago de Compostela (France/Spain)

The Santiago de Compostela Road is a legendary path that sees hundreds of thousands of hikers passing each year through sometimes bucolic landscapes, sometimes breathtaking. You will need at least three weeks to go through it in full, however nothing prevents you from taking only one section of the trail.

In France, there are four different paths that reach the beautiful city of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, near Spain. The second step leads you to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spanish Celtic Land. Here are the four starting points of the French trails:

• The Puy-en-Velay;
• Arles;
• Tours;
• Vézelay.

Beyond the spiritual dimension that the journey takes for the Catholics who make the pilgrimage, the path of Santiago de Compostela is a unique hike that will speak to all. To discover a wide variety of landscapes and cultural and architectural heritages, it is above all a human experience that awaits you.

8. Corsica

The Island of Beauty should not be randomly nicknamed. Indeed, Corsica certainly has the palmarès of dream landscapes in the Hexagon. As such, it truly deserves to be among the best hiking spots in France. Bathed by a deep Mediterranean atmosphere, they reveal themselves to the eyes of hikers through a real kaleidoscope of shapes and colors.

Although the reliefs of the island make it a capricious hiking spot, their striking beauty attracts thousands of hikers every year! In particular, GR20 crosses the northern region to the south, scrolling a large number of spectacular panoramas in front of those who venture there. This trail is considered one of the most beautiful in the world, but it deserves! The difficulty sometimes takes dangerous turns and it is not recommended to go alone.

More affordable, the three trails Mare a mare (Corsican expression meaning “sea at sea”) cross the island of East to West. They make you cross medium-mountain landscapes with a very rich fauna and flora, until you project on the beautiful coastline.

You still want some? Corsica is full of unique sites, many more hikes await you!

9. The Pyrenees

The Pyrenees may offer the greatest diversity of landscapes in France. From the oceanic lands of the Basque Country to the massif of the Albères on the Mediterranean coast, the Grande Traversée des Pyrenees allows you to travel over 900 kilometers of trail.

Discover the natural richness of the Pyrenees Natural Park, the Neouvielle Nature Reserve , from the altiplano of the Cerdagne and much more! Between valleys, caves, cascades, emerald lake and vertiginous summits, the trail promises you encounters that will remain engraved in your memory.

The Tour du Pic du Midi d’Ossau is the emblematic hike of the Pyrenees. The Pic du Midi d’Ossau is recognizable among all, its silhouette shaped like tooth reflected on the crystalline waters of Lake Ayous. The path that takes you to it makes you pass through typical landscapes filled with beauty and traditions.