Mercantour – Tour Introduction

7. June 2025

 

 

Since 1994, my parents have owned a property in Menton on the Cote d’Azur. To the south, the blue Mediterranean Sea, to the north, the mountains begin immediately. It is the end point of the GR52 long-distance hiking trail. At some point, the idea of ​​doing a hut tour there came to me – which I never followed through with. In 1998, I hiked part of the GTA (Grande Traversata delle Alpi) – which also took me to Isola 2000, but otherwise stayed in Italy. And directly below is the Mercantour. This would be a bit of a continuation of my 1998 hike. I like that.

 

It’s a tour with short daily stages and not that high. So, because of the heat, it seemed better to start early or late. However, the huts don’t open until June, usually not even from June 1st. Too much snow. I then booked the first time slot, which seemed reasonable to me, starting on June 8th. Before that, I had already spent 3 weeks in Menton and was able to do a few day hikes.

 

 

There are some fairly significant elevation gains and losses here. You won’t see many hikers, but there are a few out and about. Flowers are blooming, and the sun is already quite hot. So, shade or cloudy days are welcome.

 

 

Buses go to several starting/finishing points and back. Unfortunately not as often as I’d have liked to have, But always punctual. Per trip 2,- Euro.

 

 

From above, it’s crazy to see how incredibly crowded the coast is with houses and streets – and then, just a few km to the North, almost nothing. A few scattered, often dilapidated houses and small, picturesque villages.

 

 

Now for the planned hike. My father will drive me to St. Martin de Vesubie, 70 km away, and pick me up from a parking lot at the end. Between these are four huts (rifuges) and a gîte. I’ll figure out the difference—except that I know so far that half-board is a must at the gîte if you want dinner. Otherwise, I’ll cater for breakfast and lunch myself and only book dinner. Pre-booking worked out well—and it seems to me that my Alpine Club ID card is also valid in the refuges. Here’s the tour with the huts:

 

 

To No 5, you go there and back, but I don’t think that’s a problem at all, because there are marked lakes, and I imagine it to be very pretty. At the other huts, I hope the surroundings are also beautiful enough that I can hike a bit here and there. Then there’s also the tour with the elevation gain:

 

 

You can see: it looks moderate. I find the temperatures difficult to estimate (should I bring a down vest or not?) and also whether/how much snow there is. I’ve already seen the distant mountains from here – quite white in many places!

 

And otherwise, I’m slowly getting excited and eager to start.