IN June 2022, I set off on my third solo walk in France, walking for four weeks through the south west, inland from Bordeaux. The landscape varied from rolling hills to imposing cliffs with magnificent gorges and winding rivers. The walking was on marked trails, in forests, alongside creeks and across farmland and sometimes on tiny roads where you’re more likely to encounter a tractor than a car.
I mapped out this walk myself, which is straightforward, as France has a comprehensive network of marked long distance walking trails, known as Grandes Randonnées (GR), meaning “big hikes”, whose markers are a white stripe over a red stripe.
Walking in France has grown in popularity. On my first walk in 2015, I didn’t see another hiker. In 2018, I saw a dozen all on the same day. In 2022, I regularly
