Chemin de Stevenson · Stage 3
To Pradelles, a hilltop village: 21 km.
Best season: May to October. The association gives May to October as the best period, since the path climbs to 1,700 m; most places to stay open from Easter to All Saints' Day (1 November). From mid-October to mid-April fog and snow can make it hard, the FFRandonnée's Haute-Loire guide says, and in winter the waymarks, sometimes the paths themselves, disappear under the snow: winter walking is for walkers who know the area, with bookings made at least 8 days ahead. Before you go
Facts read from the guide's sources and OpenStreetMap on 30 September 2026. A page can change after we read it, so confirm with your accommodation before you rely on a date or a bed.
Stage start
Town
A small village with gîtes d'étape, rooms with table d'hôtes and a municipal camp site. Book ahead: the association says some stages have only one or two small places.
OpenStreetMap lists at least 6 places to stay within about 1300 m (read 30 September 2026). TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage end · overnight
Town
A hilltop village with a hotel, gîtes and rooms. Langogne, a little further on at the start of the next stage, has a station on the Nîmes to Clermont-Ferrand line.
OpenStreetMap lists at least 6 places to stay within about 1300 m (read 30 September 2026). TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
No walking time is published for this leg. Our estimate for the stage is 5 h 03, computed from the mapped line and its climbing.
Make it your trip
The association takes no bookings: contact each place directly. It advises booking ahead because some stages have only one or two small places, and most places welcome walkers from 4 pm. Cheylard-l'Évêque, the old Cassagnas station and, in its season, the abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges have the fewest beds. Most places close for part of the winter.
The tourist office's twelve stages, station to station, a night in each stage village.
Plan this journeyThe way Stevenson walked in 1878 (he took twelve days), here in the ten official stages, or in thirteen shorter days with a donkey.
Plan this journeyThe Velay and the Gévaudan in five days, from one station to another.
Plan this journeyMont Lozère and the Cévennes in seven days, from the train at La Bastide to the train at Alès.
Plan this journeyLoading the forecast for low point (985 m) and high point (1,235 m)…
Typical weather on this stage: at the lowest point (985 m) and the highest point (1,235 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
| Month | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather | Poor | Mixed | Mixed | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Mixed | Mixed |
| High point, day / night | 3°/-3° | 4°/-3° | 8°/-1° | 11°/1° | 15°/4° | 19°/8° | 22°/10° | 22°/10° | 17°/7° | 13°/4° | 7°/0° | 4°/-2° |
| Low point, day / night | 5°/-2° | 6°/-2° | 10°/0° | 12°/2° | 16°/6° | 21°/9° | 24°/11° | 24°/11° | 19°/8° | 14°/5° | 9°/1° | 5°/-1° |
| Rain, mm | 66 | 48 | 53 | 83 | 90 | 65 | 53 | 62 | 84 | 121 | 111 | 70 |
| Snow at high point | Possible | Possible | Possible | Frost | – | – | – | – | – | – | Possible | Possible |
| Daylight | 9 h 09 | 10 h 24 | 11 h 50 | 13 h 26 | 14 h 47 | 15 h 34 | 15 h 17 | 14 h 07 | 12 h 36 | 11 h 04 | 9 h 37 | 8 h 50 |
Source: TerraClimate 1991–2020 monthly averages. Averages for the area at each point’s elevation (4 km grid, corrected for height). Not a forecast or a report of current trail conditions. Snow at the high point is estimated with a simple snowpack model from these temperatures and precipitation, not observed; steep islands and high summits can hold more snow than it shows. Daylight is for the 15th of each month. Hut, transport and park seasons are separate: check them for your dates.
Before you go
Arrange your stays, food and travel first, then check conditions again near departure.
The association lists six places that hire pack donkeys along the way. A donkey carries about 40 kg, the association says, at walking pace: plan shorter days, as the 13-day plan here does, and a short first day after the lesson. Âne Azimut in Le Monastier, open 15 April to 15 October, prices the whole way to Saint-Jean-du-Gard (12 to 13 days) at €830 for one donkey, €704 in its low season (May, June and September), with the donkey's board at each night extra (€2 to €8). Hosts that take donkeys have a paddock near the gîte.
The association: hiring a donkeySeveral services carry bags between the stages, each in its own season. In 2026 LOTIX runs from 18 April to 2 November, Le Puy to Saint-Jean-du-Gard (€10 a bag a stage, at least two bags); La Malle Postale to 18 October; Axel Transport, which the association lists as open all year, from €8 a bag, booked 48 hours ahead; Transbagages from €7.50 a bag a stage (15 kg). The association lists them all.
The association: luggage and taxisWater points can be far apart: carry enough for the day. Goudet, Luc, Cheylard-l'Évêque, Mirandol, Le Bonnetès, Les Alpiers, Finiels, Mijavols and Cocurès have no grocery or bakery, the association says.
The association: food on the wayIn the core of the Cévennes National Park, bivouac is allowed only within 50 m of a GR, one night, from 19:00 to 09:00, in a light tent or none, and never on the Finiels section of Mont Lozère. No fires. In summer the Gard prefecture can close massifs when the fire risk is high: check its daily map.
Cévennes National Park: the rulesCheck Météo-France for the points along the route before each day: the GR runs from about 130 m to 1,699 m. In an emergency call 112.
The association: when to goGetting there
Travel around Le Bouchet-Saint-Nicolas to Pradelles.
Google Maps journey searches, not confirmed services. A mountain endpoint may need a booked transfer or an additional walk.
Le Puy-en-Velay is about 1h20 by train from Saint-Étienne (for the TGV), 2h20 from Lyon and 2h10 from Clermont-Ferrand, with a train every half hour to hour on average, the tourist office says.
Le Puy-en-Velay tourist office: getting thereLangogne, at the start of stage 4, and La Bastide-Puylaurent, at the end of stage 5, are stations on the line from Nîmes to Clermont-Ferrand; La Bastide also has trains towards Mende. They make the two halves of the GR walkable on their own.
The association: access and transportliO line 251 runs from Mende by Florac and the Cassagnas crossroads to Alès; between Alès and Florac its timetable shows it Monday to Saturday from 15 April to 31 October and on Tuesdays and Thursdays in winter, never on public holidays. From Saint-Jean-du-Gard, Alès'Y lines 72 and 81 run to Alès, but not on Sundays or public holidays, and liO line 112 to Nîmes; the steam train runs to Anduze in season.
The association: buses and trainsThe GR ends in Alès, with about twenty trains a day to Nîmes, about 40 minutes.
Alès tourist office: the Alès to Nîmes lineTake your trip with you
Prepare each stage while you still have a connection: the GR crosses empty country on the Gévaudan plateaus and Mont Lozère.
Keep your route and maps on your phone for places without a signal. For multi-day trips, prepare them in the installed TrailSplits app.
Saving a bookmark is not a map download. Storage can be cleared by your device; keep a backup map for remote trips.
Route & sources
The tourist office gives 272 km in twelve stages from Le Puy-en-Velay to Alès; Stevenson walked 220 km in twelve days from Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille to Saint-Jean-du-Gard, and the first and last stages were added so the GR begins and ends at a station. The line here is the route on OpenStreetMap: the eighteen relations of the GR 70 superroute (223039), walked from Le Puy with the links to Le Puy and Alès and the 2021 route into Saint-Jean-du-Gard, from the planet of 28 September 2026: 267 km, cut at the twelve stage villages; at three places where the relations leave the waymarked GR (the descents to Goudet and to Finiels, and a loop south-west of Langogne) it follows the GR as the département's and the tourist office's route files draw it, matched onto OpenStreetMap. The night at Cassagnas is at the old station on the GR, below the village. The route was changed near La Bastide-Puylaurent and Chasseradès in 2025 and above Saint-Jean-du-Gard in 2021: follow the waymarks where they differ from older guides.
Official guidance and mapped-source comparison checked 30 September 2026. Map data is a route reference, not confirmation of today's path, weather or accommodation availability.
Le Puy-en-Velay tourist office: the GR 70Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Source relation