Gîte Les Baladins

If you take this forest track in summer, which becomes a cross-country skiing trail in winter, you'll understand why the locals call this trail 'The Balconies'. Indeed, this south-west-facing itinerary overhangs the vast Ceillac plain and the old farming terraces of Le Chastellas, and offers a stunning panoramic view over the Font-Sancte mountains and La Pisse waterfall. You can also see the paragliders' take-off area. At the highest point you'll enter a forest which is darker than the larch forest crossed earlier. This is the largest arolla pine forest in the southern French Alps, where you'll be greeted by one of its main occupants, the spotted nutcracker.

"The Font Sancte, the highest peak in the Queyras Regional Nature Park, takes its name from a very ancient legend which says that a shepherdess from Escreins (hamlet destroyed by fire in 1916) discovered, while following her white goat, a beautiful spring of clear water emerging from a circular hole in the rock which looked as if it had been made by a cannonball. So the spring was named ‘Font Sainte' (holy font). The Font Sancte summit is the highest point of a mountain chain that reaches elevations exceeding 3,000 metres, from Pointe de la Saume (3,406m) in the east to Pic des Houerts (3,236 metres) to the west. This hike demands an excellent level of physical fitness. There is often snow in the couloir leading to the summit so crampons and ice axes may be required. Even when the snow has gone, falling rocks are a hazard to be wary of. Whatever the conditions, you should set out at daybreak. "

Ceillac is well-known among summer hikers for this itinerary alone. The Miroir lake is known for its reflections of Pic des Heuvières, the Veyres ridge or Pointe de la Saume. Surrounded by a forest of larch and arolla pine, it is a beautiful spot in any season, whatever the weather. Lake Sainte-Anne located higher up has only mountain grassland and rock on its banks. But the view over Font Sancte and the rocky glaciers that feed the lake is a sumptuous demonstration of how much life there is in these mountains. Every year on 26th July, Sainte Anne is celebrated in a traditional pilgrimage. The event attracts the inhabitants of Ceillac and their neighbours from Maurin to the banks of the lake and to the chapel, where their ancestors would pray to the Saint for rain for their crops.

You'll start at the bottom of a former Alpine ocean, 3,000 metres above sea level! From Les Claux car park just below the hamlet of Le Bois Noir, you'll quickly join the old mule track that was used to reach the green-marble quarry of Ceillac. This hike takes you through a sparsely-populated larch forest, then across wetlands, before crossing the Cristillan torrent on a small footbridge. After a few hairpin bends, you'll see on your left the old customs hut which is now used as a shelter by a local herdsman. From there, the grasslands give way to rock. But not just any rock! Most of the green-coloured rocks in the Cristillan mountains are remnants of the oceanic crust that formed here nearly 150 million years ago. They now reach elevations of nearly 3,000 metres.