Tour du Vercors

The day opens above Grenoble, past the concrete frame of the 1968 Olympic ski jump that still watches over the valley. Along the crest to the Moucherotte (1,901 m), where on a clear day the whole Alpine chain from Mont Blanc to the Écrins lines up in a single glance. Then it settles: the Ramées plateau, the Lans-en-Vercors valley, and by the Gobert path, a narrow ledge above the valley, down into Villard-de-Lans, the only real town on this route.

First into the vallon de la Fauge, with the waterfall of the same name behind Villard. Then the trail climbs to the Col Vert and tips back onto the eastern flank: from here to Gresse you walk for days beneath the limestone walls of the eastern barrier, on narrow paths between stone and scree, with the Isère valley 1,200 metres straight below. The stage ends at the Col de l'Arzelier, a mountain pass with a hotel and a striking view of the Grande Moucherolle.

The shortest stage, and one of the finest: a winding line beneath the Grande Moucherolle, over the Bois Ras and past the Rocher du Playnet, always with that open view of the northern chain of the massif. Halfway you can take your pick: to the right the Grande Moucherolle (2,285 m) and the Tête des Chaudières, to the left the Bourne valley. The drop into Saint-Andéol, a hamlet of thirty houses with a bivouac ground, feels like coming home to an alpine meadow.

Back on the balcony path, now via the Tours du Playnet and the Grandes Tartices, as the plateau grows drier and higher. The Abri de la Peyrouse, an open shelter, offers the finest terrace of the day with a view across the whole eastern barrier. From the Grand Brisou (1,674 m) the route tips south, and by the Rocher du Cléton the double pyramid of the Grand Veymont (2,341 m) appears for the first time, the roof of the Vercors. The stage ends in Gresse-en-Vercors, at 1,240 metres the highest village of the massif.

The Mont Aiguille day, with the needle constantly in sight. Via the Baraque du Veymont and the Tiolache the route descends to the hamlet of La Bâtie with its typical Trièves houses, then climbs again to the Col des Pellas and the Col de Papavet, where it makes a brief incursion into the Réserve naturelle des Hauts-Plateaux. The descent to Chichilianne runs along the foot of the Mont Aiguille itself, the 200-metre limestone needle that has been called the seventh wonder of Dauphiné since the sixteenth century.

A calmer day, with the heavy work up front: via Tapas de Bégoud to the Pas de l'Essaure, the gate into the heart of the nature reserve. After that clearings and forest alternate, over paths, forest tracks and a few quiet asphalt kilometres, as the landscape slowly turns Provençal. The stage ends at Les Nonières, a hamlet of the commune Saint-Julien-en-Quint, deep in the Quint valley.

The day of the cirque d'Archiane, the most photographed amphitheatre of the Vercors: a half-circle of orange limestone walls above a green meadow. After a forest track to Bénevise the route follows a beautiful path along the barrier to the hamlet of Archiane, then over the Col Gorodel to Châtillon-en-Diois, a medieval village ringed by vineyards, where the Clairette already glitters on every restaurant menu.

The closing stage runs along the flanks of the montagne de Glandasse, the enormous rock wall hanging above the Diois. Through black-pine forest to the Col des Caux and the Col de l'Abbaye, each with a last look back at Châtillon and its vineyards. The descent passes the Abbaye de Valcroissant, a twelfth-century Cistercian abbey that welcomes walkers as a gîte, and over the Pas de Bret into Die, where Roman gates, an archaeological museum and a terrace with Clairette de Die close the route.