Saint-Dalmas ⇒ Nice (via Menton)
We arrived at the very last section of the GR5. Here, in Saint-Dalmas, we were faced with a choice: Keep following the GR5 to Nice, or switch to a variant of the GR5, the GR52 that leads to Menton…
A difficult choice, since we have been pretty much GR5 purists until now. Where the white/red of the GR5 took us, we followed. This has taken us to countless wonderful places and we would like to honor this by completing the route all the way to Nice. This one goes from Saint-Dalmas pretty quickly towards inhabited areas and thus out of the mountains.
But… The variant to Menton remains in the mountains until almost the last kilometer and passes through some stunning stretches such as the extraordinary Vallée des Merveilles. 100 Kilometers through remote valleys and mountain passes almost as high as the highest we have done so far, stopping at only one town: Sospel. This also is also very tempting!
We cannot get enough of the mountains, and are so curious about this variant, that we have chosen to hike the last 100 kilometers via the GR52 to the Mediterranean. So:
We are going to Menton!!!
(And eventually to Nice after all ;-))
The 7 stages trough this last stretch of the Alps are: