A hiker wakes up camped beside a castle in southern France with 25 kilometres left to go. That's the situation in the latest instalment of a long-distance walk along the Hexatrek, a through-hiking route that threads together trails across France. Day 53 ran from the Chateau de Castelnau towards a bus stop that marks the finish line, with just one more bivouac to squeeze in along the way.
The day's challenge wasn't distance but geography. This stretch of the route passes through a heavily farmed part of the French countryside, a sharp change from the wide-open terrain of earlier weeks. Fences close in on both sides of the path until it feels more like a chute than a trail, and the writer spent hours scanning maps for anywhere flat enough to pitch a tent that wasn't clearly someone's farmland. The alternative — walking past the finish point to pay for a campground — held little appeal.
The highlight of the day came at La Couvertoirade, a fortified medieval town on the Larzac plateau that turned out to be busy with French holidaymakers. It's a useful reminder for anyone walking in France: it is the most visited country on earth, and even a tiny walled town in rural Aveyron draws serious crowds. The hiker spent an hour exploring the castle and relaxing in the well-preserved streets, noting that the town looks so good partly thanks to mid-20th-century French restoration work. It's a fair point — plenty of France's picture-perfect villages owe their condition to skilled craftsmen as much as to medieval builders.
After lunch on a park bench, an afternoon hammock nap in the shade and some last-minute food fantasising about an upcoming trip to Malaysia, the writer finally found a workable campsite: flat, grassy and just about plausibly not a field of crops. The last night on the trail came with a soundtrack of barking sheepdogs and one lingering worry — the patou, the large Livestock guardian dogs that roam with sheep flocks across this part of France and are best given a wide berth.
For holidaymakers, this is a nice window into what long-distance walking in France actually looks like near the end of a route: less epic mountain scenery, more farmland, fortified villages and logistics. La Couvertoirade itself is worth a detour even if you never strap on a backpack — it's one of the best-preserved fortified towns in the country, sitting on the open Larzac plateau in the south of France, and it pairs well with a drive through the Grands Causses regional park.
The bigger takeaway for anyone tempted by a long trail like the Hexatrek: the final days are often the trickiest for wild camping, not the remote stretches. Farmland, fenced fields and protective dogs replace empty ridgelines, so planning a finish line near a town with a bus connection — or a paid campground — is a smart move.
Via The Trek
