Which GR should I choose for my first multi-day hike?

A route of a few days in mid-altitude mountains or the countryside, well supplied with accommodation, is ideal. A GR de Pays, such as the Tour de Cerdagne or the Tour des Monts d'Aubrac suggested by FFRandonnée, lets you start gently.

Can you walk a GR over several trips?

Yes. Splitting a GR into sections of a few days, strung together over the years, is common practice. Choose break points served by train or coach.

How many kilometers a day on a GR?

FFRandonnée's benchmark is a stage of 20 to 25 km at most, or no more than 8 hours of walking in the mountains. In the mountains, ascent often matters more than distance.

What is the best season for a GR?

It depends on the altitude: summer for the high mountains, while the refuges are open; spring and fall are often better suited to the countryside, the coast and the South.

Choosing your GR: fitness, duration, season and scenery

Four questions before you choose

According to FFRandonnée, the network of GR and GR de Pays trails stretches over some 115,000 km. Faced with so much choice, the simplest approach is to start from four questions: what is your level, how much time do you have, what season are you going in, and what scenery appeals to you? The answers quickly rule out a good number of options.

Your level

FFRandonnée points out that good physical fitness is enough to take up multi-day hiking, provided you prepare for it. What separates an easy GR from a demanding one comes down to a few criteria:

Ascent: stringing together long climbs and descents every day is far more demanding than distance alone.
Terrain: a wide track through the countryside has nothing in common with a stony path, rocky sections or scree slopes in the high mountains.
Remoteness: on some routes, you have to carry several meals and a lot of water between two places to stock up, and opportunities to drop out mid-stage are rare.
Stage length: FFRandonnée's benchmark is a stage of 20 to 25 km at most, or no more than 8 hours of walking in the mountains. The further apart the accommodation, the longer the days.

For a first GR, a route in mid-altitude mountains or the countryside, well supplied with accommodation and villages, lets you discover multi-day hiking without pressure. A GR de Pays of a few days is a good introduction: the federation suggests, for example, the Tour de Cerdagne or the Tour des Monts d'Aubrac as ideas for beginners. The great traverses of the Alps, the Pyrenees or Corsica, on the other hand, require prior mountain experience.

Before you set off, train with a loaded pack: FFRandonnée advises testing it with at least 8 kg on your back, pointing out that pack weight is the long-distance hiker's number one enemy.

Your time

A GR can be walked in a few days or over several weeks. If you only have a long weekend, go for a short GR de Pays, a loop or a section of a long-distance route. FFRandonnée's GR @ccess tool, available on MonGR.fr, offers more than 450 suggested routes of two days or more, which you can filter by your own criteria.

Always build in some slack: a rest or catch-up day in case of bad weather, blisters or tiredness stops the end of the walk from turning into a race against the clock.

The season

The ideal season depends mainly on the altitude and the region:

In the high mountains, the favorable window is short. Snow can linger on passes and shaded slopes in early summer, and staffed refuges only take in visitors during their staffed season, which is specific to each refuge. Check these dates before fixing your departure.
In mid-altitude mountains and the countryside, spring and fall are often pleasant, with fewer people than in high summer. Some accommodation does close out of season, however.
On the coast, the paths often remain passable for much of the year. In summer, accommodation in tourist towns is in high demand: book early.
In the South, summer heat makes long stages hard going and water scarcer. In departments exposed to wildfire risk, access to some massifs may also be restricted in summer: check the prefecture's information before you set off.

The scenery

The selection of the finest GR trails published by FFRandonnée shows the diversity of the network:

If you want	Example GRs
The seaside	GR34 (round Brittany), GR21 (Normandy coast), GR223 (round the Cotentin)
High mountains	GR10 (Pyrenees), GR5 (Grande Traversée des Alpes), GR54 (Oisans and Écrins), GR58 (Queyras), GR20 (Corsica)
Plateaus and mid-altitude mountains	GR91 (Grandes Traversées du Vercors), GR509 (Grande Traversée du Jura)
Countryside and heritage	GR70 (Stevenson Trail), GR65 (Way of St James from Le Puy-en-Velay)
Overseas France	GR R2 (traverse of La Réunion)

Beyond the scenery, think about the atmosphere: a pilgrim route is very sociable, with new encounters every evening, whereas a traverse of a massif can offer long hours of solitude.

Walking a GR in sections

Nothing obliges you to walk a GR in one go. Many hikers split it into sections of a few days, which they string together from one year to the next. This approach has several advantages: it fits around your holidays, lets you choose the best season for each section and reduces the risk of giving up.

To split a route well:

Identify the access points: a railway station, a coach stop or a shuttle at the start and finish of each section simplifies all the logistics.
Break off in a town or village where you will find accommodation and supplies, rather than in the middle of a stage.
Note exactly where you stopped, so you can pick up at precisely the same point the following year.
Use the right tools: GR @ccess lets you select a segment of a route from one waypoint to another and save it, and the topoguide remains the reference for stage details.

Finally, choose a waymarked route and take the topoguide and a map: FFRandonnée points out that phone apps can become unusable where there is no signal.