walking & adventure holidays

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Press .....

In 2008 we have featured in both a winter walking and via ferrata article for the Riviera Times as well as a short piece in the Times Travel section - "Our Woman in Berthemont".

The National Geographic - Kids magazine ran a feature page (December 08) including a competition to win a week in the Mercantour including a visit to Alpha wolf centre.

We are regular contributors to Mountain Passions, World Photographic Adventure, and Snowshoemag.com

Lonely Planet Magazine - May 2010

   • The most beautiful place on Earth?

   • Nick Danziger - Alpes Maritimes - Provence France

"I often travel to three or four continents a year, covering locations from furnace-like deserts to teeming mega-cities. I spend too much time at 30,000 feet, but once I am home I am in one of the most beautiful corners of the world. As I look out of my window in the South of France, I can see the beginning of the Mediterranean Alps. Within an hour and a half, my family can trek to unspoilt wilderness areas, walking on to picnic by a lake in an amphitheatre of mountains. Trekking along the border between France and Italy means every picnic is a feast of pain de campagne and bresaola, coated in olive oil and lemon, with olives, cheese and wine. We trek in all seasons, which offers us clear blue Mediterranean skies in summer, blankets of descending mist in autumn, snow in winter, and crisp but usually dry weather in spring. If we are lucky we will spot a chamois or ibex; they are as curious to watch us as we are to watch them.

It is not just the physical beauty of this place that takes my breath away, but three elements - home, family and the mountains – that combine to give me the greatest of all possible pleasures."

Sydney Morning Herald - February 2011

An Aussie mate happened to see a small article about the famous Mel Jones, the Mercantour and spacebetween when she was on holiday in her home country earlier this year. Lovely stuff but even nicer if you know about when you know about these things!! Unfortunately there is no mention of the article on the paper's website but we do hope, of course, to be able to welcome more of our Antipodean friends for a walking holiday in our lovely part of France.

Le Monde - January 22 2011 - Patrick Bard et Marie-Barthe Ferrer

   • Mercantour – the sacred etchings of the Vallée des Merveilles

"Not so long ago, wolves came back to torment shepherds in the Mercantour, bringing back memories of ancient times. Shepherd′s memories which become lost among the thick masses of cloud beneath Mount Bego, which attracts lightning thanks to its mineral wealth. "This giant baits thunder as surely as a magnet," comments Alain, raising his head.

A raindrop as large as a Euro coin splatters on his forehead. Hell Lake changes to the colour of zinc. The Devil Pass and the Marvels Valley, answer its spell and do not fail to live up to their name. The atmosphere is leaden, summits with ravines etched by the weight of glaciers. Mankind is humbled, especially as, at this moment, there is the threat of a storm. The territory of shepherds, dominated by the mighty Bego at 2872 metres, the 5000 year old Marvels Valley holds onto the memory of their devotion."

It is not difficult to imagine the pilgrimage, the shamans, the astronomers involved in engravings, overwhelmed by this gigantic amphitheatre, praying to the skies, heads bowed, scratching the rock with a wealth of mysterious shapes – wedge shaped figures and images which seem to dim the light. Because it is perhaps the thunder from the sky which improbably came here to pay homage at the foot of the summits which nurture the water when the clouds burst. Storm, the fertiliser of the Earth. Sun, whose light enchants living creatures

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See how you could share in the Merveilles Valley Experience here....