The Tour Du Queyras (GR58)
The Tour du Queyras, or GR58, is a 130 km (80 mile) hiking loop through the French Alps, close to the Italian border. It’s a hut to hut trek, meaning you can hike from refuge to refuge and spend each night somewhere different along the trail.
I can’t quite express how much I loved this trek. It was relatively easy to navigate and plan, absolutely stunning, and, rather than feeling like the focus was on technical difficulty or pushing yourself to the limit, it felt like the trail was simply asking you to enjoy your surroundings. And WOW, did I ever.
As the days went on, I found myself noticing and appreciating the nature around me more and more. There was something about spending several consecutive days in the mountains and forests, waking up surrounded by them and then walking through them for hours each day, that affected me and my brain in a way I’m still having a hard time putting into words.
One thing I loved about planning the Tour du Queyras was how straightforward it was. There is a website (Mon Tour Du Queyras) where you simply choose your starting point and the direction you want to hike, and it maps out each day’s walk, shows which refuges have availability, and lets you book your accommodations all in one place. I found it incredibly helpful. Also, Alltrails has the Tour mapped out into 9 sections/hikes, which was really helpful as well. Another map app that was recommended to me by a local was VisoRando, which can be used for hikes all over France.
That said, I didn’t actually book my entire trek ahead of time. I finished the tour in eight days, although I met people completing it in anywhere from five to nine days. Personally, I think five or six days would have felt a little rushed. I tend to hike fairly quickly, but I also like stopping to take photos, sitting for a while when the view is beautiful, and taking breaks whenever I feel like it. I never want to feel as though I’m racing through a place just to get to the next destination.
Luggage note: Before setting off, I stayed at a small gîte in Arvieux and the owner very kindly let me leave my larger backpack there, so I only carried my 20 liter daypack for the trek. Looking back, a 25 or 30 liter pack probably would have been ideal, but alas, the 20 liter was what I had, and it worked.
Even hiking the tour in eight days, I found myself feeling a bit rushed during the final few stages. One day I skipped a viewpoint (Col du Malrif) that would have added about a thousand meters of elevation and another two or three hours of hiking. It looked absolutely beautiful, and several hikers had recommended it to me, but after the previous day’s distance and knowing how much hiking I still had ahead of me, I just wasn’t up for it. If I were to do the trek again, I would probably add another day or two simply to give myself more flexibility. However, part of the reason that I did shorten the last few stages of the trek was because I wanted to meet back up with my friend, who works during the week, for the weekend. Our weekends together became a really special part of my travels, so it felt worth finishing a little earlier.
Before going into my personal day-to-day, I’ll go through a quick overview of what one can expect a general day to look like:
~7:30AM (varies slightly from Refuge to Refuge): Breakfast provided. You typically eat with other hikers staying at the Refuge.
Then hiking for several, varying hours across beautiful, also varying, landscapes.
Typically, a free late afternoon. In these afternoons, life truly slowed down. I’ll get more into that in the next section.
7:00PM: Dinner provided. One of my favorite parts of each day! Everyone staying at the Refuge sits and enjoys the traditional French meals together and it’s another great way to casually meet people.
Now for the day-to-day:
Day 1
On my first day, I left from Arvieux and after a three hour hike I was at Refuge de Furfande.
This refuge sits in front of a spectacular mountain range, and they even have tents you can stay in. I chose one of those, and I highly recommend it. Waking up, unzipping the tent, and immediately seeing the mountains in front of me was such a cool experience. It was also my favorite sunset-watch on the trek because it’s already at this amazing viewpoint without having to hike back in the dark or anything.
I remember arriving around 11:00 in the morning and suddenly realizing I had the entire afternoon ahead of me before dinner at seven. At first, I felt strangely uncomfortable. I kept thinking I should be reading something, planning something, or doing something productive (I’ll address this later). I also felt lonely and at the same time, shy. Most of the hikers were older than me, there was a language barrier, and I remember feeling very small and very quiet that first afternoon.
Two people eventually struck up a conversation with me, which helped me come out of my shell a little. At dinner, I ended up sitting with one of them and the rest of his group, which included an Irishman that also couldn’t speak much French. Dinner definitely helped me feel more comfortable and afterwards we watched the World Cup together on someone’s phone while the sun set behind the mountains. It ended up being such a lovely first night on the trek.
Note: it was cold! I slept in layers, my down jacket, two pairs of pants, and my beanie. This was in June, so if you’re planning on camping or staying in one of the refuge tents, definitely come prepared for cold nights.
Back to my point about feeling the need to be productive in some way, over the course of the trek I was coming increasingly to terms with the fact that I don’t have to be reading something. I don’t have to be planning something. I don’t have to fill up my spare minutes. Sometimes it’s enough (and even beneficial!!) to simply sit. By the end of the trek, this felt so much more natural.
Day 2
The next day I hiked about 4.5-5 hours to Montbardon. This is actually a variant of the GR58 that many hikers skip in favor of continuing straight to Ceillac, but I’m really glad I chose it. The hike itself was mostly through forests with almost no one else on the trail. While I love meeting people while traveling, at least in my opinion, there’s something so freeing and peaceful about being mostly alone on a trail surrounded by beautiful nature.
I then arrived at a small refuge called Cadran Soleil, or “The Sundial,” that had this beautiful view. The only guests that night were me, an older couple, and the owner. I had my own 6-bed room with an ensuite bathroom 🙂
We ate our lovely homemade dinner all together and the owner talked about how he came to live in Montbardon and eventually built the refuge. He spoke about loving the peace, the mountains, and his neighbors, and how he had built a life that genuinely made him happy. You could tell he truly cared about what he was doing there, and it made the refuge feel especially welcoming. Needless to say, I highly recommend staying here.
Day 3 & 4
On Day 3 I hiked to Ceillac, one of the larger villages along the Tour du Queyras. This was one of my favorite hiking days of the entire trek, but kind of for no particular reason. I was feeling good, the weather was beautiful, there were beautiful fields of wildflowers and forest, the mountain views were just getting better and better, paragliders could be seen in the distance, etc. At one point I was walk-dancing down the trail because I was simply so much in that mood.
In Celliac, I stayed at Refuge de la Cime, which is about an hour’s walk from the center of the village. I did not realize that when I booked it, but it actually worked out well because it made it easier to reach Lac Sainte Anne and Lac Miroir the following day. I ended up staying there for two nights so I could spend a full day hiking to both lakes. That was my 4th day! It took about 1.5h to hike to Lac Miroir and about another hour from there to Lac Sainte Anne, and then about 2h back to Refuge de la Cime.
Note: Refuge de la Cime was cash only, as was Refuge de Furfande.
During those two nights I met two different groups of Belgians, all around my age, and they were just so kind and so much fun! We chatted, we played cards, we showed each other music, etc. I remember those two nights so fondly.
Day 5
On my 5th day of the tour, I ended up hiking with one of those Belgian groups all the way to Saint Véran, about 5h.
The hike to Saint Véran involved a good amount of climbing and descending, much like the rest of the trek, but nothing that felt especially difficult. You get beautiful views when you reach Col des Estronques and there’s a waterfall close to Saint Véran that you pass on the trail.
In Saint Véran, the Belgian group and I all stayed at Chalet l’Estoilies together and had another lovely evening. The owner here was especially kind and accommodating, and I really appreciated how intentional he was about creating a welcoming, social atmosphere among the guests.
Day 6
On Day 6, we all continued to Refuge de la Blanche, where I had originally planned to spend the night. When I arrived, though, I still had plenty of energy and realized the next stage was only about another few hours. After lunch, I decided to keep going to L’Échalp instead, where I stayed at 7 Degrés Est, which was also cash only.
That stretch passed two beautiful alpine lakes before gradually descending through the valley. It ended up being one of my favorite sections of the entire trek. Since I was hiking here in the later afternoon, not many people were on the trail and I was just having a great time. The pictures do speak for themselves, but I just want to add that I felt SO much awe on this day, looking at trees, rocks, cliffs, etc. And I really do think it was a product of being in the mountains for six days straight.
From Refuge de la Blanche, there’s also the option of taking a longer and more technical route that passes Refuge Agnel. Several people recommended it to me, and the photos looked incredible, but there wasn’t any availability when I checked that morning. Looking back, it’s another reason I think adding an extra day to the Tour du Queyras would have been worthwhile. There were a few places like that where I chose the shorter option simply because I wanted to keep moving, but with another day or two I definitely would have explored more.
Day 7
After L’Échalp, I stopped in Ristolas for a coffee with the first group of Belgians I’d met earlier on the trek. We stayed there for quite a while and then went our separate ways. I continued on to Aiguilles.
This was when I could’ve hiked to Col du Malrif that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Still, even without it, I had a pleasant hike, an afternoon in Aiguilles, and a lovely dinner at Le Petit Auberge where I spent the evening chatting to a half-irish, half-french girl around my age.
Day 8
On my last day I hiked from Aiguilles back to Arvieux, where I had started the trek. This took me about 7h, but I really loved it. I ate lunch at the charming small town of Souliers. At one point on the hike I reached Col du Tronchet which captured these amazing, panoramic views of the mountain range. It was so so stunning.
Back in Arvieux, I stayed the night, picked up my larger backpack, and caught the bus the following morning.
Closing Remarks
I left the Tour du Queyras feeling incredibly grateful for the experience, and already excited for the next hut-to-hut trek 😊😊.
Thank you for reading!! Have a wonderful day 🙂