Metropolitan hiking trail GR 2013 - also right through Marseille

Thursday, 21 November 2024 00:00
Written by Portal Editor

We had heard several times about the GR 2013 long-distance hiking trail, a 365 km long hiking trail that took us through the landscape of Provence to the metropolitan region of the southern French port city of Marseille.

The so-called metropolitan hiking trail was also set up as part of the 2013 Capital of Culture region. It criss-crosses the city, its suburbs and its periphery. The trail is intended to enable the population and tourists alike to explore all parts of the city on foot - including the otherwise little-used outskirts. So it's no wonder that during our excursions in Marseille and its surroundings we repeatedly came across corresponding markings without really consciously following the exact route.

Hiking trail as an open-air museum and as a work of art

One goal of a metropolitan hiking trail is to give tourists a different experience of the urban space, to create relationships between places that were thought to be far apart and to link the areas of ecology and urban planning, contemporary art and literature, tourism, local public transport, local politics and biodiversity. The basic idea for the GR 2013 was therefore also to renew the relationship between city and nature.

Its initiator, the publisher Baptiste Lanaspeze, designed the trail together with eleven so-called "walking artists" from the Cercle des Marcheurs and the Excursionnistes marseillais, the local hiking club. Its "inventors" see the trail as a work of art in itself and compare it to an "open-air museum" in the form of a hiking trail that allows the contemporary landscape of the Bouches-du-Rhône region to be experienced on foot.

Marking scheme for long-distance hiking trails in France.

Like every Sentier de Grande Randonnée de Pays, the GR 2013 is marked with yellow and red markings and is therefore accessible from any location along the route. As part of the Marseille-Provence 2013 Capital of Culture year, there were also six festival weekends of exploration tours with the "walking artists", hikes, picnics, audio walks and art performances in six cities on the GR 2013.

In the shape of a figure 8, the GR 2013 runs from the Aix TGV station around two undeveloped areas on the outskirts of the port city of Marseille. To the west it circles the Étang de Berre inland sea, to the east the Étoile and Garlaban massifs. The GR 2013 crosses a total of 38 municipalities, as well as three shopping centres, industrial areas, Roman forts, railway lines, fields, motorways, residential areas, industrial wastelands, but also Natura 2000 areas and two mountain ranges. The entire route takes 15-20 days. Hikers can therefore choose their own sub-destinations if they do not want to complete the entire route.

A hiking book that can already be described as unusual combines practical maps, information on architecture, industrial history, waterways and plants with works by artists (photos, maps, drawings, texts). Highly recommended!

Projects that have been created in the context of the GR 2013

Trail points, an internet observation post in the GR 2013 region by Bryan Connell.
Observatoire Photographique, a photo observatory by Geoffroy Mathieu and Bertrand Stofleth. 100 selected viewpoints on the GR 2013 will be photographed once a year over the course of ten years.
Caravan (CAUE13, Radio Grenouille and ÈditionsWildproject), an exploratory project by the department's Council for Architecture, Urban Planning and the Environment with experts from the municipalities along the route (mayors, MPs, architects, tourist guides, former refinery workers, rangers, etc.).
Promenades sonores, audio walks in the Marseille area by Radio Grenouille (local radio station).
More than just lavender and wild horses - long-distance hiking trails in Provence
The GR was developed on the drawing board in 2013 as part of the "Marseille-Provence Capital of Culture Region" project. An important goal of the "route designers" was not only to have the route run through beautiful landscapes, but also to open up and connect urban, suburban, agricultural and industrial areas.
The western loop of the GR 2013 circles the bay “Etang de Berre” and the eastern loop reaches as far as the Massif de l’Etoile and the Massif du Garlaban mountains and leads, among other things, through the middle of the city of Marseille.

In summary:

Destination circular route / back to the starting point (also ideal for stages)

Type combined tour through nature, cities and suburbs (very new “concept” GR for the project Capital of Culture Region Marseille-Provence (2013)

Accommodation hostels, guest houses, campsites
Length 350 km
Elevation (uphill, total) approx. 6200 m
Total time for the route approx. 12 – 20 days
Best travel time spring to autumn (actually all year round, but very hot in summer and only a few overnight accommodation options outside of the season)
Special features relatively easy to walk. Leads through various natural and urban areas.

Please read as well:

The waterworks in Gotha: A jewel of engineering art

Day trip - From Marseille to Glanum