The Cime de la Palu hike in Saint Martin-Vésubie

From the Cime (meaning 'peak' in French) de la Palu, you can see panoramic views over the Vésubie valley

We didn’t know much about Saint Martin-Vésubie before our recent visit, having read only that it was a small medieval village in the Maritime Alps with some good walking opportunities.

Once we arrived, we knew almost immediately that we’d made the right choice.

We've written a short guide to staying in Saint Martin-Vésubie. But we also wanted to share a little more on a couple of hikes to help you decide where to explore if you decide to visit.

This is the longer of the two hikes we went on: the tiring but very rewarding Cime de la Palu hike. Read on to find out more about how challenging the hike is, some notes on directions, what wildlife you can expect to encounter, and some general advice for less experienced hikers.

If you’re interested in a shorter, less demanding walk from Saint Martin-Vésubie, you might be interested in reading our blog about the Collet Path.

Even in the middle of May, the higher Maritime Alpine peaks are still capped with snow

What to know about the Cime de la Palu hike

• Hiking the Cime de la Palu will take most people around 6 hours, if you want to take photos and short breaks on the trail up. Fitter, faster hikers could complete it in a shorter time.

• We took longer – around 7 and a half hours – as we took a longer route at the start of the hike (more on that later) and stopped for lunch at the summit.

• This is an out and back (“aller/retour” in French) hike. The best views are those later into the uphill part of the hike as you get towards the top of the mountain, and those on your way back down the trail.

• The guide provided by the Tourism Office will tell you this is a “5/5 difficulty” hike. We can testify to the fact that it is a strenuous hike: you'll be going up more than 1200 metres of elevation and tackling some steep sections towards the end of the route. Adding to the difficulty is the warm weather, as the trail is only recommended from April to early Autumn after the snow at lower altitude has melted and temperatures are higher. 

• While physically demanding, this is not a technically difficult hike. You will need good hiking boots as the trail is steep and there are some looser stones on the paths, but the average person would not feel unsafe walking on any of the trails we were on. There’s no need to sidle along any narrow sections, nor use ropes to help you up the slope, nor any other things that might cause a less experienced hiker concern. It’s just a very long uphill climb, with only a few flat sections to take breaks on.

• Lastly, despite the difficulty, we loved this hike! Even in mid-late May, you’ll see spectacular views of snow-capped peaks from the top of the hiking trail and panoramic views down towards the Vésubie valley below you. For anyone looking to experience the Alps but not able to climb higher and more technically challenging peaks (us too!), this walk is as perfect as you could wish for.

While these grey clouds look threatening, we had no more than a few drops of rain on our hike. Check the forecast carefully before you set off.

Notes on directions

You can get suggestions for several hikes from the tourism office in the centre of Saint Martin-Vésubie. We’d strongly recommend picking up one of the tourism office’s guides, which include information on and instructions for several hikes (written in French). If you don’t speak the language, a translation app such as Google Lens will provide accurate enough directions. 

Roughly translated, and amended slightly for simplification, the directions on the Tourism Office’s guide for this hike read:

• “Take Rue du Dr Cagnoli (the street with the stream) up in the direction of the school towards marker 60. Turn right onto a small paved road (b.77), cross the stream (additional note: you’ll be walking over a bridge, not fording a river) and continue to marker 337, the true starting point of the hike (950m elevation). The trail begins to climb and winds through the forest to the Puey Plateau (marker 342, 1292m elevation). Turn left to join the main path which crosses the track twice (marker 343).

The Cime de la Palu hike is fairly well signposted. Between these signs, the yellow painted marks and our notes below, you shouldn't make a wrong turn.

• Continue uphill on the path climbing uphill through the forest (marker 344) and then into upper alpine pastures from the 1800m mark. Shortly before marker 345, you will reach a small pass (2,100m elevation) overlooking Berthemont-les-Bains to the South and the Fenestre Valley to the north. The summit of La Palu (2,132m elevation) by taking a short detour left (west), a further 30m uphill. After taking in the views, retrace your steps back.”

A couple of notes on these directions that might help you.

• Do not follow Google Maps’ suggested route to reach the bridge over the stream. It looks like a shortcut but will in fact take you to someone’s garden.

• There are yellow marks painted along the hike in between the official numbered markers to help keep you on the right path.

• The signpost at marker 337 points to the Cime de la Palu in two directions. Go left for the shorter, steeper hike (as in the instructions from the Tourism Office guide) and right for a longer one – read the section below if you’re in two minds about which to do.

• Annoyingly, there are two markers with 342 on them. As we did the longer trail, we can’t be sure whether you’ll see one or both of these on the shorter trail. If you see two, follow the directions on the signpost for Cime de la Palu at the first. The path will lead you up through the forest and to a road. We got a little confused at this point because there were three directions to choose from and we couldn’t immediately tell which one to take, but cross the road and continue to follow the footpath uphill – you'll soon see a yellow mark on a tree which is hidden slightly from view. Continuing up on this path should bring you to the second 342 marker.

• After this, the directions are all very straightforward. Just keep following the yellow marks and be aware that the gaps between markers gets quite long on the steeper, later parts of the hike. Don’t be concerned that you’ve missed a turning if you’ve been walking for 15-20 minutes after marker 343 and haven’t found marker 344 yet. You can also look out for signs relating to the “vertical kilometre” / “KmV” - a trail running event route which follows a steep 1km (in elevation) chunk of this trail.

Some people choose to run up this trail. Top scientists are still no closer to understanding what causes this behaviour.

The shorter hike or the longer hike:

• At marker 337, the signpost will point in two directions to the Cime de la Palu. Go left (“La Puey Par Cougnetas”) if you want to follow the Tourism Office instructions to the letter and save an hour or so of walking. Go straight on (“La Puey Par La Coste”) for a longer walk which will take you along the side of the river for longer and give you some more views of the Vésubie valley on your walk up.

• We did the latter. If you go this direction, keep following the signposts and yellow painted markers through 338, 339, 340… until you eventually reach marker 342 and can start following the guide instructions again. It would be almost impossible to get lost on this section of the trail.

• If you’re not in ultra great shape (me neither), then the shorter trail might be better despite it being steeper uphill early on. The views on the longer trail are nice, but you’ll see them from the higher sections of the hike too. After several days of long walks, we were pretty exhausted by the time we reached the top… and, truth be told, decided we didn’t have the energy to take the last very short pass to the very peak. It would only have been a few minutes longer, but we both felt we'd have enjoyed the extra hike less than some extra time spent enjoying the views from just below the peak.

Marker 337: take these stairs through the forest for a slightly shorter hike, or continue along the road to the right for a longer one.

Some advice for less experienced hikers

• Spring-Autumn is tick season in the Alps, and the paths have long grass to the side of them at several points. Bring a decent insect repellent and wear long clothing. You’re unlikely to get bitten, but why take any chances?

• At this elevation, you will get sunburn quickly. Parts of the path are fully exposed to the sun. Keep applying sun cream when you pause on your hike.

• Bring a couple of litres of water per person to drink. Bring some snacks or a lunch and keep the litter in your backpack as there are no bins on the trail. There are no toilets either, so plan accordingly.

• Let someone know you’re planning to hike the trail just in the unlikely event you get into difficulty. We saw only two other hikers on this trail on a mid-May weekday so don’t assume someone will be along to help you out if you haven’t let someone else know what time you're setting off and when you expect to be back.

• Phone signal was good throughout the hike; I could even video call my parents to show them the view from the top. But phone batteries run out and your signal might not be so strong, so make sure you keep a written copy of the directions. Ideally, bring a portable charger with you.

• We didn’t follow the last part of the instructions along the short 30m path to the official peak. According to Google (and its may or may not be true AI summaries), this path will take you over a pass which is exposed to steep slopes downwards on both the left and right, which may be scary for anyone with a fear of heights. To us, the path looked fairly wide and flat so it shouldn’t be technically difficult – we just didn’t go across it because we were tired and didn’t think the views would be much different from where we stopped. That being said, if you suffer from vertigo, if you're very physically tired and therefore more likely to have a lapse in concentration, or if you just don't feel confident on an exposed path, keep in mind that this last pass may be difficult for you.

The 'Alpine pasture' mentioned in the hiking directions, complete with picnic bench. The peak is just 30 minutes further from here.

Any cool wildlife?

• So much, though we can’t guarantee how much of it you’ll see. This part of the Alps are home to marmots, ibex, moufflons, god knows how many different birds of prey, snakes (nearly all of them non-venomous; all of them non-lethal), cuckoos, woodpeckers.

• I've already said birds of prey, but a special mention for the golden vultures. I was shocked how many of these beautiful scavengers we saw, and how stunning they are when seen from above as the sunlight reflects off their wings.

• If you like bugs, you might enjoy seeing the impressively red and black European Firebugs that share parts of the path with you. If you don't like bugs, don't worry: they're completely harmless.

• How much wildlife you’ll see is down to a mix of when you start your hike, how lucky you are, and how good the visibility is.

• We sadly weren’t too lucky on our hike. But we still saw several vultures, three hawks (too distant to identify what kind), loads of smaller birds, and a very, very good dog. On the previous day’s hike, we also saw two snakes – one small one, and one very large but harmless grass snake.

• We also heard cuckoos and woodpeckers. Not as good as seeing them, but still very pleasingly Alps-y to us tourists.

The Alps might not have quite as many butterflies as we saw on our recent trip to Taiwan, but some of them are just as beautiful

Final thoughts

The Cime de la Palu hike in Saint Martin-Vésubie is a must for anyone keen to go walking – not climbing – in the Alps. Experienced, ultra fit hikers can complete it comfortably in a few hours and probably still have the energy to go socialise in one of the little bars in the village after.

Slightly less fit, increasingly close to middle-aged people like me can still complete this hike and get back down the mountain in time to spend a much quieter, more restful evening with a hot chocolate in hand, gazing back up into the hills they’ve just walked. As hard as it was, I’d do this hike again tomorrow if I could.