Hiking Guidebooks and Maps Beyond the French Riviera ® Also: [ List of Topo Guides | Info and Ordering | Grande Randonnées ] And: [ Road Maps, Guidebooks ] [ Guides | Maps ] Hiking Guidebooks Guide books are best purchased in the cities and larger towns, where you'll have the greatest choice. While the guides will normally be in French, the directions and map symbols are universal enough to be clear to most hikers and walkers. To give you an example of the number of possibilities, a few of the many hiking guide books I've seen recently are: - 250 Hikes on the Cote d'Azur - 355 Hikes in Provence - Au Pays d'Azur de l'Esterel a la Roya, 163 Hikes - Mercantour Ouest - 125 hikes - Mercantour Est - 150 hikes - En Haute Provence - 86 hikes - Randonnées et Découvertes Alpes du Sud et Corse (200 pages of hikes) Another wonderful little guide shows 75 Hikes with the Train des Pignes. Each hike is a loop, starting and ending at a station of the narrow-gauge train that runs between Nice and Digne. Take the train out, have the hike of your choice, and return on the train. The train ride itself is worth the trip, so this hiking tip is for non-hikers as well. This guide is available only from the train station in Digne or the Gare du Sud in Nice. (Note: This little book is apparently no longer available (1999). If so, we recommend the following 52 Balades guidebooks. 52 Balades (Petites Traces Vertes) - Didier Richard This set of paperback guidebooks, with green covers and about 130 pages, describes family-style hikes of varying degrees (many very easy) and varying lengths (many from 1 to 3 hours). The descriptions (French) are short and detailed. There's a very clear and easy-to-understand map for every hike, with nice cartoon-style graphic icons for key features, points of interest and navigation. We use these guides ourselves for day hikes in the region. Some of the titles: 52 Balades en Famille... autour de Aix-en-Provence autour de Marseille autour de Toulon Hyères dans le Pays Niçe;ois autour de Avignon autour de Briançe;onnais autour de Tignes - Val d'Isères autour de Cannes - Antibes - Grasse - Fréjus 30 Balades en Famille autour de Serre-Ponçe;on Les Guides Randoxygen are small-format (15x24 cm) hiking guidebooks, produced by the Conseil General des Alpes-Maritimes, and available from the Nice Office de Tourisme. We found two versions "Rando Haut Pays" and "Rando Moyen Pays" available (free) at the Office de Toursime desk of the Nice airport (Oct 1999). Try contacting: Office de Tourisme Tel: 04 93 92 82 82; Fax: 04 93 92 82 98 Main office (Direction Générale) FFRP "Topo Guides" (about 70-90 FF) are published for many areas in the Beyond region, based on the different Grand Randonnées or principal parks and mountains. The FFRP is listed on the Hiking page, along with the Vieux Campeur where the guides can be purchased by mail-order. A partial list of FFRP Topo Guides for the Beyond region is presented on a separate page. Each Topo Guide covers one or more trails, GRs and PRs, in a particular region, with a clear map of the region covered on the back cover. The Topo Guides include detailed maps of the terrain and the trails, and profiles showing the altitude of all hikes in the guide. Each stage of the hikes is described clearly and briefly. The descriptions are in French (bien sur), but the stage titles give the time, location and altitude clearly enough that the guide is useful even without the descriptions. Example: "1h 20 - Col du Pérus (659 m); 2h - Sospel (350 m)". The guide lists the resources (lodgings, campsites, shops, restaurants, trains, buses) for every town and village along the trails. There's also a list of suggested itineraries for the region of the guide, listed by times. The guidebook "GR52A, Panoramique du Mercantour", for example, lists (in French): - One day between two stations - Three days - Three days loop, from Sospel - Four days - Five days loop, from Col de Turini Les Guides IGN. These excellent guidebooks are for hiking, cycling, canyoning and even sailing, with detailed route maps and information. 1. Mont-Blanc Vanoise (northern Alpes) 2. Vercors - Diois Buêch (Die) 3. Ecrins - Queyras (Briancon) 4. Corse (Corsica) 5. Ubaye - Verdon (including Gorges du Verdon, Castellane, Annot, Entrevaux, Digne-les-Bains, Colmars, Barcelonnette) ISBN 2.85595.036.8 6. Préalpes de Savoie 7. Cévennes - Grands Causses [coming soon] 8. Provence [coming soon] 9. Environs de Paris [coming soon] Didier Richard "Collection Traces Grand Air" are small-format, but thick, hiking guides (about 75FF), with detailed route instructions, but no maps. They are text-heavy, and the key information (place names, stages, times) does not stand out, so the guides are not useful if you don't read French well. They also [ Guides | Maps ] Hiking Maps Maps showing the hiking trails and cross-country ski trails are available in even the tiniest book and news shops. Maps of 1:25'000 and 1:50'000 are provided by a number of companies, with sets of maps often covering most of France. The blue 1:25'000 maps sold directly by the IGN (Institut Geographique National) are extremely detailed. The 1:50'000 maps published by Didier Richard are best for showing the trails: hiking in blue and cross-country skiing in red. The Michelin "green" roadmaps are also very useful for hiking. IGN Maps IGN-SOLOGNE 41200 Villefranche-sur-Cher, France tel: (33) 254 96 54 42; fax: (33) 476 54 41 74 or I.G.N. Service des Ventes et Editions 107, rue La Boétie 75008 Paris Procedure: send your requirements to IGN; they inform you of the cost; you send them a check, money order, Eurocheck. IGN will have a method to accept payment by bank cards by the end of the year (1996).   Map World - IGN Maps via Internet Map World (http://www.map-world.co.uk) offers the full range of IGN and Didier Richard maps for ordering via the Internet. The 1:25,000 scale "Blue" maps are at http://www.map-world.co.uk/page1.htm#blue. Maps can be ordered by email or fax, for delivery to anywhere in the world.   Didier Richard Maps tel: (33) 476 51 38 39; fax: (33) 476 54 41 74 No sales to individuals; maps must be ordered/bought through bookshops.   Available via the Internet, from Map World (http://www.map-world.co.uk).   Mailorder from the Vieux Campeur, Paris.   Only one Didier Richard "client" in North America: Liber Diffusion 681 Rue Principale Laval, Quebec   Michelin, Paris tel: (33) 145 66 12 34