Читать книгу Tour of the Queyras. The GR58 and GR541 in the French Alps онлайн

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Many gîtes d’étape are sympathetically restored traditional buildings. The typical establishment will accommodate between 10 and 30 people, in a range of small dormitories and sometimes in rooms for two. There are washrooms, showers and toilets, and usually a kitchen where food can be prepared. The dining/sitting room is the social hub of the gîte. These days virtually all gîtes d’étape provide meals of restaurant quality, and local food and regional dishes are often a speciality. The gîte d’étape generally provides very good value for money.

Most gîtes d’étape along the Tour du Queyras are only open for the main summer season, from June until September. A few are open all year and some open for the main winter skiing season.

Refuges

Walking and climbing in the European Alps is facilitated by a network of mountain huts (refuge in French, rifugio in Italian). The term ‘Alpine hut’ is hardly apt for these refuges, some of which are very elaborate buildings. Most of the mountain huts in the Alps are owned and operated by the Alpine Club of the country in which the hut is situated. In France this is the Club Alpin Français (CAF) and in Italy it is the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI). A few of the refuges in the Queyras (for example Furfande and Agnel) are privately owned, and several are members of an umbrella organisation, the GTA (Grande Traversée des Alpes), to which some gîtes d’étape also belong.