Saint-Lary Soulan - Loudenvielle - Germ
- Distance: 13km
- Duration: (with breaks): 6h 30min
- Elevation gain/loss: 1200m/700m
Today is classic hiking in France day: waking up, quickly packing the tent, and hitting the boulangerie! I feel very privileged to start my day with fresh croissants and coffee. It is early morning and the locals are still enjoying sleep, me, Romana and Nikolai proceed with the explorations of the GR10 trail.
It’s one of those days when elevation is not extreme (although still 1200m up!) and the trail passes numerous villages while keeping the mountains in the distance.
In one of those villages, I decided to take a break while Romana and Nikolai continues hiking. I guess I’ll meet them somewhere in the next valley. The trail is quiet as the sun wakes everything around and chases away the clouds. That’s a cool thing about the Pyrenees, the valleys are often covered in clouds, so if you get yourself just a bit higher, you’ll be above the sea of clouds.
After days of passing gangs of local cows, today I’m not intimidated by yet another section owned by them. I don’t know why, but they seem to love hanging around the trail, leaving me no option but to march past and pretend that I’m cool about it. As long as there are no cow mommies with little calves, I’m fine.
Before lunch I reached the main viewpoint for today, a field close to Col d’Azet (1600m), overlooking Loudenvielle village. Two very familiar hikers were chilling there already. I joined Romana and Nikolai, and we had a long pre-lunch break soaking in the views and observing paragliders diving into the valley.
We descended to Loudenvielle for lunch and our last opportunity for grocery shopping before we head into the high mountains again (that’s tomorrow). As our tonight’s destination, Germ, is only 1 hour away from Loudenvielle, we didn’t hurry. Until there arose a prospect of an afternoon storm 😄 The final piece of trail was a steep climb up a hill and darkening clouds kept us at a good pace.
Germ is a little mountain village, so we soon found Centre de Montagne de Germ-Louron, where it is possible to camp in the backyard. As soon as we arrived, we were welcomed by raindrops and could happily shelter inside. Lucky! It was a short storm though and soon we were setting up our tents. Another day in the pocket.
Day 7 tips
- Loudenvielle has the last grocery store before Bagnères-de-Luchon, which is two days away, so I suggest supplying there in case you don’t want to rely on mountain refuges.
- Centre de Montagne de Germ-Louron has only a few spots for tents, so make sure to be there early during busy times. The camp spots are on a slope, which is far from ideal, but hey, you can also use the facilities inside the gîte (toilet, shower, electricity). Even a pool is included in the services!