Trail running in France - Mercantour Station de Trail.....

 

The Mercantour continues to put itself on the map with its innovations in sporting trends.  After initiating the outside ice climbing structure in Le Boreon - which becomes a summer climbing attraction in the summer months - the area has just launched a new "Station de Trail" in the Vesubie.  The new trail running centre is only the third in France - following in the footsteps - no pun intended - of the Chartreuse and Vercors regions.  

Of course the Alpes-Maritimes department has tremendous diversity, and the Mercantour is perfect for trail running.  

The centres have four objectives

1) To provide waymarked circuits which are graded in the same way as ski runs - green, blue, red and black.

2) To offer a training ground for the "die hard" devotees of the sport where they might train to take part in such events as the Vertical Kilometre - next planned for June 2013.

3) To advise interested visitors of what they may care to do on the trails.

4) To have a hub site - www.stationdetrail-vesubie.com - which runners can become a member of, to post their times, chat to other fitness keen folks etc.

The training aspects also cater for beginners and aerobic champions alike!!!

There's plenty of information on the Station de Trail website - in German, English, Spanish and Italian no less, plus a useful brochure which I'm sure could be ordered from the Saint Martin Vesubie tourist office - 00 33 (0)4 93 21 28. 

To enjoy your holiday in the Mercantour - get in touch with spacebetween walking and adventure holidays - they don't have trail running as part of their holiday programmes as yet, but they do have great accommodation for you to stay in if you want to come and do your own thing.  Bit of a no-brainer - just an hour from Nice....and good weather!!!!