Introduction
Once a 'must-visit' destination for 18th-century Grand Tourists, the Massif de la Chartreuse (location map) has lost little of its charm in the last 250 years. Celebrated by literary giants like Thomas Gray, William Beckford, and William Wordsworth, and captured by renowned artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Robert Cozens, and John Ruskin, the massif's dramatic scenery earned it Regional Nature Park status in 1995.
Despite its stunning beauty and rich cultural heritage, the Massif de la Chartreuse is often overlooked by British visitors. It does tend to be better known to cavers as it is also one of the most popular caving areas in France with several hundred kilometres of caves explored in its 700 sq. kilometres, with three systems exceeding 50 km in length.
The purpose of these web pages is to provide a source of information about the area in general, and the walking in particular. Currently, some 50 walks are described.
Note that the site has been designed to allow rapid down-loading, and so in the main photographs and maps are made available on separate pages, although photograph galleries are available
This site has been developed using HTML5 and Cascading Style Sheets, and may not display as intended on older browsers. The pages are designed to be printer friendly, and only the main content part of the page will be printed - without the title bar and the menu bar. The pages are also mobile friendly.
A PDF file (16 Mb) containing the print version of the website but without maps or photographs, is available for download.
Do feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments, and also to share your views on this site, or on Chartreuse itself, in the Guest Book.