walking & adventure holidays
All the activities you've ever imagined in an action packed week!
For adrenaline junkies – we are pleased to offer non stop adventure weeks – where you get the chance to try out some of the best Via Ferrata around, then...
- –Test yourself with some rock climbing.
- –Swing high at the High Level Forest Adventure park
- –Launch yourselves into cold water canyoning
- –Test your nerves cross country biking or via ferrata
Then......
- –Take 2 days out for great high mountain trekking – staying over in a refuge.
The picturesque medieval town of St Martin Vésubie sits at the head of the Vésubie valley.
It is a quintessential French mountain village nestling amongst steep pine clad slopes and overlooked by the towering peaks of Cime du Gelas and Caires de Cougourde – two of the highest points in the Mercantour Park.
It is the perfect base for exploring this central area of the park. During your stay with us, we will spend time on the boulders and rock faces of Valdeblore, and will be exploring some of the main valleys that converge onto the Vésubie for scrambling routes.
The Vésubie valley itself has several deep gorges that run into it where well tried canyoning routes of various grades can be found.
On each evening, we will give a description of the following day’s activities, and the following is a short account of these.
It is impossible to be precise about what will be selected on any particular day, because it is highly dependant on prevailing weather conditions. More often than not we can keep to our schedule because of the predominantly clement weather, however the mountains have a funny habit of surprising us from time to time.
See what Timandra Harkness said in the Guardian about Via Ferrata.....
Season
June toSeptember
Departures to date
2012 : Jul 21; Aug 8
Pricing
Standard weekly package :
Gite based full board - £660
Hotel or Chambre d'Hote full board - £845
For non-standard periods and programmes, contact us to discuss the options. Read about our flexible way of working.
How to book...
Grades
grade
| attributes | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| physical fitness | x | x | x |
| confidence with heights | x | x | x |
| technical ability | x | x | x |
| mountain experience | x | x | x |
Our grades are explained in "essential info"
Your Accommodation - On all our Mercantour based trips you will either stay in our gîte at La Zourcière, or if you choose our Hotel or Chambre d'Hôte options we are very pleased to work with local establishments the area.
Gîte
Enjoy the beautifully secluded situation of La Zourcière in the small hamlet of Berthemont les Bains in the Vésubie valley. The gîte sits on the ground floor of the house and is fully self contained. There are shops about 10 minutes drive from the hamlet, and an organic farm just 200m down the road from the house. Follow this link for more details.
Hotel or Chambre d'Hôte
Le Grand Chalet is a homely chambre d'hôte run by Christine and Luc and is situated overlooking the small village of St Dalmas Valdeblore. A good week of outdoor activity is well fuelled by Christine's great cooking, crafted from home made (mainly organic and local) ingredients. Vegetarians are welcomed.
Hotel Saint Sébastien is situated in just outside the small town of Roquebilliere. Again, family run, with large airy rooms, and has a restaurant and outdoor pool.
Le Chalet or La Bonne Auberge are situated in the town of St Martin Vésubie, a thriving small community that has been the centre of life in the valley since the 12th century. There are plenty of local shops and restaurants to choose from, and the Bonne Auberge has its own restaurant.
What's included
Gîte Based : Self catering with a twist, with two evening meals cooked for you. We provide you with all your food and wine for the week, all inclusive, you just have to cook it!
Hotel/Chambre d'Hôte Half Board : All meals, inclusive of packed lunches. Drinks at own cost.
Transport : To and from all venues. To and from Nice airport. For all guests, if anyone needs to buy any other tit bits, there are pleanty of small shops that we can stop off at during your stay.
Activities : See itinerary below. All technical gear is provided. Entry fees where applicable
Itinerary
- Day 1 Arrive Nice airport transfer to le Grand Chalet, Valdeblore, or arrive at the gîte at La Zourcière, Berthemont les Bains.
- Day 2 Mountain Bike day. Start in the Valdeblore valley and climb over to Venanson, to end the day back in St Martin Vésubie.
- Day 3 Via Ferrata. Spend the day with Pierrot on one of the best VF’s in the district on Baus de la Frema.
- Day 4 Two day Italy trek. Walk up to the Haute Boréon, and follow little known paths over the high col de la Ruine on the frontier, and then down to stay at the superbly situated Rifugio Genova.
- Day 5 Climb back over Pas Brocan and contour around to Col Guilié. Ascend to the peak of Cime Guilé at 3000m, and then descend back to our start point.
- Day 6 The site d’escalade Guy Dufour – a day climbing with Pierrot on good limestone slabs with great short routes of various grades.
- Day 7 La Bollène, the valley that leads up to the Col de Turini has one of the best moderately graded canyons in the area – water slides, abseils, water jumps.
- Day 8 Transfer back to Nice for hotel guests, or leave the trip in Berthemont les Bains.
Suitable for
Your welfare & protection
As a small enterprise, it's very important to us that our guests are professionally looked after during their stay with us.
Your protection : our operational base is in France, and our company in France is registered as a tour operator (habilitation touristique) and holds business failure cover and public liability cover.
Your welfare : all our activities are led by fully qualified local Mountain Guides and International Mountain Leaders (Accompagnateurs), thus ensuring that you receive not only top professional care, but that you will also benefit from their in-depth local knowledge of the regions that we operate in.
thrills and spills
This web site is serviced by Futureservers. Contact John Short at john@webok.co.uk.
Copyright : Spacebetween Alpine Adventures Ltd registered in England, company No : 5154532.
Spacebetween registered in France, siret No : 477 861 900 00025