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

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Commencing the descent from the Col de Moussière (Stage 1)

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

You are about to turn the pages of a practical guidebook that will lead you safely on a journey through a region of the European Alps known as the Queyras. Here there are high cols, remote summits, scented pine forests, lush Alpine valleys, high pastures and flower-strewn meadows. But for me this is more than a mere guidebook – there is something of an enigmatic love story within its pages, the result of my third exploration of this most beautiful and magical of Alpine regions and my second complete ‘Queyras Tour’.

This last adventure was after a 17 year absence from the region. Twice in the 1980s I walked extensively in the Queyras, becoming totally captivated by its almost indescribable charm. In a most subtle way, I found it quite unlike any other area that I had ever visited in the Alps. In the intervening years I travelled the mountain and wilderness areas of over 30 different countries, in every continent save the southernmost, but when asked which was my favourite, I would always, without hesitation, say ‘the Queyras’.