Trekking The GR5 Trail: Through the French Alps: From Lake Geneva to Nice (Cicerone Guides)

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I bought the print edition to prepare for my month-long GR5 hike, and downloaded the Kindle edition to my phone, consulted the Kindle text daily for an overview of the day's route, and for planning ahead on camping, refuge, gite and shopping/re-supply opportunities. Sketch maps and route variants are useful (but do download gpx route files for accurate navigation and guidance). I would recommend this book to English-readers embarking on this most amazing of journeys, around 640km through the Alps, guided by author Paddy Dillon.

Très complet et pratique niveau présentation des info. Seul bémol, les bouts de cartes sont vraiment petits.Et la livraison via colis-privée, mauvaise. Arrivé après la date annoncée, c'est la première fois que ça m'arrive via Amazon.

This book should be used in conjunction with maps rather than a replacement as I somewhat foolishly had hoped to do. Given the distances covered quite quickly, getting new maps every couple of days was more hassle than I wanted and frankly the route was so well marked after a while, that the book seemed entirely sufficient.I came quite drastically undone as soon as hit the Alps proper near Chamonix where the red/white markers are everywhere. Assuming I was on the right track I managed to miss a turn towards Lac D’Anterne and ended up going up the wrong valley to Refuge De Sales. In my defence they seemed quite identical to look at the scenery and I was confident that the markers were bringing me along the GR5. However what should really be called out in the book more clearly is that the red/white markers are for all GR variations. Sticking to the GR5 requires one to be very attentive to destination names. With only a compass and no map (or internet) I ended up trying to rejoin the route via the Passage du Derochoir which was not a good idea and I had to abandon given it was late in the evening and I had 15kg on my back (though it offered me one of the greatest views of my life of Mont Blanc atop perilous cliffs). I got lost once or twice in the Forest De Thenon at the start where things are not marked so well and unfortunately the book was little help other than a hidden warning to be attentive.The book has little info on camping which I think Paddy is overly dismissive of the idea - I met quite a few French people camping on the GR5. If you do plan to wild camp, don’t fret - there are quite a few spots to bivvy en route - as long as you avoid the cows.This is also something which I think could be included in the book - cow etiquette. As someone more used to the placid sheep of Scotland and the penned in cows of the U.K., the aggresion of the Alpine cows was a little startling. I started in Thonon-Les-Bains (as the visibility up higher was terrible for 2 days) and much of that route passes territory where the cows block or cross the paths. I had to take many sodden sock detours to avoid the cows after a few uncomfortable run-ins.But I found the book very useful for planning my route and day-to-day walks. It was helpful to know where I could fill up with water etc. The timings for me personally we’re pretty spot-on. It was great to know how far the next restaurant/Orangina stop was or if the weather turned sour where I could stay in a refuge. For a compact book that spans 30 days of walking it is a pretty good blow by blow route description. The little maps were perfectly adequate for the most part.But - like almost all Cicerone guides - the use beyond a route description is very limited. They seem keen to avoid verging into a Lonely Planet territory and offering any sort of useful information about eating or sleeping. They won’t tell you that the €6 saucisson is the best value deal at Restaurant La Haute Bise (see picture - those are triangles of butter!) In fact some of the info here isn’t quite right - much to my annoyance I found out late in the day that there is nothing in Chevenox at all - no shop or bar and the places to stay were closed leaving me hungry and waterless. It is a roundabout more than a village. Avoid. In fact, I wouldn’t start at Thonon-Les-Bains. Everyone I met started at Saint Gindolph (pronounced Jan-dolf). If you can’t do day 1 there then you won’t be able for much more of it. Also do not rely on chalets etc beyond the main refuge stops being open as some were closed.I plan to go back and do more than Stage 1 of the GR5, and the book will certainly be coming with me. However when I return I will have more maps, possibly the topoguide (a Frenchman showed me one and it’s much more impressive) and a lot more internet search beforehand.Like almost Cicerone guides, it’s useful, worth the money, but ultimately a little unsatisfactory.

A good guide, but best to photocopy the pages you're going to use in the field as the entire book is a bit heavy for the multi-day backpack.

A lot of detail about turn here or there, but it would be good to know more, such as for campers, where can you wild camp, where is water etc. Brian Johnson should write one, like his GR10 and 11 books. Haven't done the walk yet, was suppose to be this year, so it's a virtual walk instead!