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Walking the French Alps: G.R.5 (Cicerone Mountain Walking)
 
 
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Walking the French Alps: G.R.5 (Cicerone Mountain Walking) (Paperback)

by Martin Collins (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 168 pages
  • Publisher: Cicerone Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (1 May 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1852843268
  • ISBN-13: 978-1852843267
  • Product Dimensions: 17 x 12 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 624,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Fully updated second edition prepared in 2000. The previous edition has been the best-selling and leading guide to the route for many years. Extensively illustrated with maps, and black and white and colour photos. One of the world's leading long-distance trails, through the Alps from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean - a mere 660km (400miles).


About the Author

Martin Collins is a freelance author, photo-journalist and cartographer, as well as a regular contributor to the UK outdoor media. First walking the GR5 in 1981 kindled a passion for the French Alps that remains as strong as ever. He has since written over twenty books for walkers embracing the coast, mountains and countryside of the UK and parts of Europe. He has three children, and lives in north Wales on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A very useful guide, 19 Oct 2003
By B. Jacobs (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I set off from Lake Geneva in July 2003 to walk the length of the GR5 to Nice. The guide is very useful, albeit it takes a little getting used to, and this means a few wrong turns and wrong plans at first. The pace Collins sets is fast, make no mistake, especially on climbs. He also does not factor in rest periods, meals etc. He does have a tendency to over state how wonderful a particular section may be. Words such as 'sensational' and 'extraordinary' sometimes rasie expectations too high! But a very good guide that I would have hated to be without when high up & alone in the mountains!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A sub standard and outdated guide to a classic route., 8 Oct 2007
By Mark G. Harris (Chelmsford UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This pocket guide, written by Martin Collins, is one of the Cicerone series and is the standard guide in English for the classic traverse of the French Alps from Lake Geneva to Nice- the GR5. The guide covers, in addition to the main route, a number of popular route variations. This version of the guide was according to the fly last reviewed and updated in 2004. I used it in the summer of 2007 whilst walking the route.

Unfortunately, the guide falls well short of the high standards set by Cicerone in a number of their other Alpine guides. To begin with the revision date is highly suspect since the text still mentions the French Franc when the Euro was adopted in 1999! Although this is not a serious problem in itself the section on useful maps is equally outdated, some of the map series mentioned having long ago been superseded, while in the section on photography, digital does not appear to exist. This all leads one to be suspicious about how "up to date" this guide book really is?

The route directions in the text are broadly correct, though the cursory attention to detail, throughout the guide, smacks of sloppiness. Route instructions are often vague and lacking in clarity. On occasion they are simply absent. For some route variations, like the GR52 variant to Menton, it is clear that the author has simply copied the route timings from the French Topo guide with no route detail whatsoever!

The problems of the guide, in part, undoubtedly stem from its length, which is about 25 pages shorter than the Cicerone Chamonix -Zermatt Haute route guide. Yet that route is 180km, while this route is 660km! Surely this superb Alpine traverse warrants a longer treatment?

The old style black and white Maps in the guide are sadly poor and of little use covering as they do up to a weeks walking and therefore lacking useful detail. The Photographs are in need of updating. While the complete absence of telephone numbers for gites and refuges is puzzling- since such info appears in other Cicerone Alpine guides.

If your French is reasonable, I'd suggest buying the French GR Topo guides of the route. If you need a guide in English keep your eyes open for a new and completely revised edition which must surely be due soon!

Good News! After writing this I met in a refuge north of Chamonix Paddy Dillon who is rewriting this guide from scratch for Cicerone with day by day colour mapping and a new set of photos. So look out for a completely new Cicerone route guide to the Alpine GR5 in 2008. I will review this as soon as I get my hands on a copy.
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