Refuge d’Art: Walking Tours among Andy Goldsworthy’s Mountain Art in Provence

Two art walking tours in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, led entirely in English by Luc Richard — state-certified French mountain leader and mountain art guide certified by the Musée Gassendi. The 8-day Refuge d’Art hike (€1,590) with two nights spent inside Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures, or the 6-day Chemins d’Art tour (€1,550) based in one country-house hotel. Both begin at Aix-en-Provence TGV station and end with a full day at Château La Coste. Groups of 5 to 10. Spring and autumn 2027.

A collection of contemporary art unlike any other in the world

There is a stretch of southern France that almost nobody walks. It lies where Provence begins to climb into the Alps: two thousand square kilometres of black marl ridges, beech woods, abandoned hamlets and dry riverbeds, sparsely populated, poorly served by roads, and — for reasons that have everything to do with one museum curator’s stubbornness — home to roughly a hundred works of contemporary art.

The story begins in 1994, when the curator of the Musée Gassendi in Digne-les-Bains set about saving a small provincial museum by pushing it out of its own walls. Artists were invited to make work in the mountains themselves — permanent, site-specific, unguarded, unlit, unsigned. Thirty years on, and carried forward ever since by the museum’s team, that decision has produced the Collection d’Art en Montagne: a body of work spread across the Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark with no walls, no opening hours and no queue.

The guiding idea comes from the philosopher Pierre Gassendi, born here in 1592, who gave the museum its name and the project its motto: ambulo ergo sum — I walk, therefore I am. The museum means it literally. These works show themselves to people who have walked to them, and to nobody else.

In 2023 the Pôle Ambulo — the Musée Gassendi, the Maison Alexandra David-Neel and the Cairn art centre — was designated a Centre d’art contemporain d’intérêt national by the French state.

Refuge d’Art: Andy Goldsworthy’s most ambitious work

Of all the artists who came, the British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy stayed longest and went furthest. Over nearly two decades he built Refuge d’Art: a single, continuous work of art that unfolds along 150 kilometres of mountain path.

Refuge d’Art is a single piece, and the route through it belongs to the work. It links three monumental dry-stone cairns — the Sentinelles — and a series of ruined shepherds’ huts and roadside chapels that Goldsworthy rebuilt stone by stone, each one housing a single sculpture, each one with a door, a fireplace, a wooden bench, and a key. They are called refuges because that is what they are: you can sleep in them.

« For me there is a fundamental difference between a work of art you look at for a few minutes in a museum and a work you live with for a while… Sleeping in a sculpture is a wonderful idea. » — Andy Goldsworthy, interview, 2002

This is the largest concentration of Goldsworthy’s work anywhere in the world, and the only place where he built work you are meant to sleep in.

He is not alone out there. The Dutch artist herman de vries — who writes his name without capitals, « because i am opposed to all forms of hierarchical thinking » — has left gold-leaf inscriptions on bare rock, a sanctuary of nature in a wood he considered inhabited, and sator arepo tenet opera rotas, the Roman word square first found in the ruins of Pompeii, engraved and gilded onto a boulder. The American Richard Nonas, an anthropologist before he was a sculptor, has marked the tension between human settlement and wild ground. The Catalan Joan Fontcuberta and the Frenchman Paul-Armand Gette have added their own quiet interventions.

Almost none of it is signposted. Much of it you would walk straight past.

Two ways to walk it

I have been guiding this route for eight years, in French. From 2027 I am running it in English, for small groups of English-speaking travellers — from the UK, the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

Both tours cover the same collection and both end the same way, with a night and a full day at Château La Coste. The difference is how you sleep.

Most guests come alone or as a couple. They are typically between 45 and 70, regular walkers without being athletes — teachers, architects, doctors, curators, retired professionals. Almost none of them are art specialists, and none need to be.

The 8-day Andy Goldsworthy Refuge d’Art hike, day by day

The full immersion: five of Andy Goldsworthy’s Refuges d’Art, all three Sentinelles, and two nights spent sleeping inside his sculptures.

Day 1 — Aix-en-Provence to Digne-les-Bains

I meet you at 4:00 pm at Aix-en-Provence TGV station (or at Marseille Provence airport, if that suits your flights better). From there we drive north-east in a private vehicle — about an hour and three quarters, watching Cézanne’s Provence give way to the pre-Alps. Night at Le Refuge des Sources*, a three-star hotel in Digne-les-Bains. Dinner together, a proper briefing. No walking.

Flying long-haul? Add the optional day in Aix-en-Provence and arrive the evening before, with a morning in the old town before we set off.

Day 2 — Courbons to Thoard: the first Andy Goldsworthy Refuge d’Art

A short transfer to the hamlet of Courbons, then out along the Siron ridges. A siesta after the picnic — a habit here, not an indulgence. Late in the day, the Refuge d’Art Chapelle Sainte-Madeleine on its rocky promontory. Dinner under the plane trees at the Auberge de la Forge in the Provençal village of Thoard. Night at the village gîte. 13 km (8 miles) · +610 m / –650 m (+2,000 / –2,130 ft)

Day 3 — Over the col de Mounis to Refuge d’Art La Forest

A long ridge day, ending at the most remote of them all: Refuge d’Art La Forest, a rebuilt farmhouse with no electricity, no plumbing and no neighbours. Dinner cooked on site. Your first night sleeping inside a Goldsworthy. 13.5 km (8.4 miles) · +830 m / –730 m (+2,720 / –2,395 ft)

Day 4 — The Dromon chapel and Goldsworthy’s Sentinelle du Vançon

Down through the woods to the chapel of Dromon, whose crypt holds Roman-era remains, then to Saint-Geniez and the first of the great Sentinelle cairns, standing alone in the Vançon valley. The afternoon is deliberately empty: rest, laundry, reading, deckchairs by the river at the Gîte des Monges in Authon. 9.7 km (6 miles) · +440 m / –300 m (+1,445 / –985 ft)

Day 5 — The high point: col de la Croix de Veyre

Transfer to Feissal, where herman de vries has left traces near the clues — narrow limestone gorges cut by water. Up over the col de la Croix de Veyre at 1,886 m (6,188 ft), past the future Refuge d’Art Vieille Cabane de Chine, then down the Descoure ravine to find de vries’s fenêtres. A stop at the village bistro in Barles. Night at the Flagustelle gîte in Verdaches, in the old village school. 12.6 km (7.8 miles) · +500 m / –910 m (+1,640 / –2,985 ft)

Day 6 — Bicycles, a fossil velodrome, and a second night inside a Goldsworthy

The one morning we don’t walk. Old Dutch bicycles, provided by the gîte, and a long easy freewheel on a quiet road at a 5% gradient — down through the clues de Barles and past the Sentinelle du Bès, with works by Joan Fontcuberta, herman de vries and Paul-Armand Gette along the way. (A car is available for anyone who would rather not cycle.)

Then on foot, up the bed of a fossilised river, to Refuge d’Art Vieil Esclangon and three de vries traces hidden in the ruins of the abandoned village. A short climb to the viewpoint over the Vélodrome — a twenty-million-year-old river delta turned to stone and tilted on its side, one of the most remarkable geological sites in Europe. Transfer and a short walk to Refuge d’Art Ferme Belon, with its great fireplace. Dinner by candlelight, lamb grilled over the embers. 11 km (6.8 miles) · +475 m / –385 m (+1,560 / –1,265 ft)

Day 7 — Goldsworthy’s River of Earth, then Château La Coste

A last short walk from Ferme Belon down to Draix, a transfer and a brief climb to Refuge d’Art Bains Thermaux for the picnic. Back into Digne for the Musée Gassendi and Goldsworthy’s River of Earth — the work that gathers the whole week into a single room and, in my experience, the moment the trip finally makes sense to people.

Late afternoon, we drive south to Château La Coste (about an hour and three quarters). Dinner and night at the Auberge La Coste, on the estate. 3.7 km (2.3 miles) · +70 m / –210 m (+230 / –690 ft)

Day 8 — Château La Coste

Guided Art & Architecture Walk in English through the morning. Lunch at the Tadao Ando Café Restaurant. Cellars and tasting in the afternoon. I drop you at Aix-en-Provence TGV station (or Marseille airport) at 5:00 pm.

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The 6-day hotel-based Andy Goldsworthy tour, day by day

Four of Andy Goldsworthy’s Refuges d’Art, a Sentinelle, and a hot bath every evening.

Some people want to see this work but would rather not carry a pack over a 1,886-metre col, and there is nothing second-best about that. This tour is based in a single hotel, walks are two to four hours, and you come back each evening to the same room. You will still stand inside four of Goldsworthy’s rebuilt refuges — Chapelle Sainte-Madeleine, La Forest, Vieil Esclangon and Ferme Belon — and finish in front of River of Earth at the Musée Gassendi.

Day 1 — Aix-en-Provence to the Villa Gaia

4:00 pm at Aix-en-Provence TGV station (or Marseille Provence airport), then the drive north to the Villa Gaia, a three-star country house built in 1730 and restored in the nineteenth century by a family of Alpine merchants back from Mexico. Original furniture, generous rooms, a wooded garden, no televisions. Anne-Françoise cooks from the kitchen garden and the local farms; dinner is at eight, at one table.

Flying long-haul? Add the optional day in Aix-en-Provence and arrive the evening before, with a morning in the old town before we set off.

Day 2 — Two Andy Goldsworthy Refuges d’Art in a day

Morning: transfer to Thoard and an out-and-back walk to the Refuge d’Art Chapelle Sainte-Madeleine, perched on its promontory (4 km / 2.5 miles, +300 m / 1,000 ft). Picnic. Afternoon: we drive round into the Vançon valley for the walk in to Refuge d’Art La Forest — forty-five minutes each way, +200 m (650 ft) — the most isolated building Goldsworthy rebuilt, and one that hotel-based visitors do not normally get to see. Night at the Villa Gaia.

Day 3 — Roche Rousse and the sanctuary of nature

Up the right bank of the river Bès through black pine and oak to a rocky ridge above the valley, then into the bois sacré, the wood herman de vries considered inhabited by spirits, where he built his sanctuaire de la nature. A tiny Orthodox hermitage makes the picnic spot. On the way down, beneath the vertiginous blade of Facibelle; on the drive back, a stop at the « ammonite slab », a two-hundred-million-year-old sea floor standing on end. 5 km (3.1 miles) · +420 m / –380 m (+1,380 / –1,245 ft) · about 4 hours

Day 4 — Refuge d’Art Vieil Esclangon, the Vélodrome and Alexandra David-Neel

This time along the left bank. Walking becomes a time machine: you cross the reddish bed of a tropical lagoon where palms, dwarf rhinoceroses and large wading birds lived twenty million years ago. Refuge d’Art Vieil Esclangon answers the climb; a short scramble opens the view over the Vélodrome. In the ruins of the old village, herman de vries’s gold-leaf traces; in the Bès valley below, a Sentinelle.

Back in Digne, the recently restored house of Alexandra David-Neel — opera singer, anarchist, orientalist, and in 1924 the first European woman to reach Lhasa — with its adjoining museum of Asian art. 5.6 km (3.5 miles) · +280 m / –330 m (+920 / –1,080 ft)

Day 5 — Refuge d’Art Ferme Belon, Goldsworthy’s River of Earth, then Château La Coste

We check out and drive to Draix for the last Goldsworthy of the trip: Refuge d’Art Ferme Belon, reached along the rim of canyons carved into black marl — a landscape that looks less like Provence than like the moon. Picnic at the refuge. Afternoon: the Musée Gassendi, the beating heart of the collection — Goldsworthy’s River of Earth, the hydropithecus fossils, a herbarium arranged as a work of art.

Then south, and dinner and the night at the Auberge La Coste. 4 km (2.5 miles) · +150 m / –150 m (+490 / –490 ft)

Day 6 — Château La Coste

As for the hike: guided Art & Architecture Walk in English, lunch at the Tadao Ando Café Restaurant, cellars and tasting, and Aix-en-Provence TGV station at 5:00 pm.

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Château La Coste: the counterpoint

The last evening is a shock, and that is why it is there.

You arrive off a week in which nothing was signposted. Above Digne, the works are unlit and unlabelled; several of them you would walk straight past, and I have watched people do exactly that before I said anything. No guards, no opening hours, nobody else on the path. Goldsworthy rebuilt those refuges out of the stones lying around them, and reaching one takes five hours on foot. The museum built the whole collection on Gassendi’s motto, ambulo ergo sum, and it works exactly as advertised: the collection opens only to people who have walked into it.

Then, an hour and three quarters south, someone hands you a glass of rosé on a terrace in the middle of two hundred hectares of vines.

Château La Coste holds more than forty works on a four-kilometre circuit through vineyard, olive grove and stone pine: Tadao Ando, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, Sean Scully, Ai Weiwei, Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jenny Holzer, Lee Ufan, Bob Dylan — among buildings by Ando, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Oscar Niemeyer, Richard Rogers and Kengo Kuma. Each artist chose their own site and made the work for it. Everything here is confident, generous, and built to be looked at. Ando’s concrete art centre stands in a shallow lake with Bourgeois’s Crouching Spider reflected beside it; I think it is one of the finest things put up in Provence in the last fifty years, and I never tire of watching people come round the corner and stop in their tracks.

Two collections, both of them art placed outdoors to live in a landscape, at opposite ends of what that can mean. The week above Digne leaves a physical imprint — in the legs, in the shoulders, in the memory of cold stone under a sleeping mat at four in the morning — and that imprint is what holds the works. Months later it is the body that gives them back to you. My guests usually begin to understand Digne on the drive south to La Coste, and they go on understanding it long after they are home.

Oak Room: where the two collections meet

Halfway round the circuit there is a low doorway in a dry-stone wall, and it is Goldsworthy again.

Oak Room (2009) is a chamber built into that wall from around twelve hundred pieces of Burgundy oak, interlocked so tightly the structure carries itself. You stoop to get in. Inside it is dark and it smells of wood. It is one of the most impressive Goldsworthy works I know — and anyone who has spent the week sleeping in his shepherds’ huts recognises it on sight: the same low door, the same insistence that you go in instead of looking, the same use of what was already on the ground.

Richard Long is here too, with Circle of Riverstones (2019): twelve metres of boulders pulled out of the Durance. In 1967 Long made a work by walking back and forth across a field until the grass lay flat, and everything the Musée Gassendi has done since 1994 descends from that gesture. Ending eight days on foot in front of his circle is my favourite way to close the trip.

Lunch, cellars and the vineyard

Lunch is at the Tadao Ando Café Restaurant, looking out over the vines. In the afternoon we go underground into Jean Nouvel’s winery — ten metres high, seventeen metres below ground — for a tour of the cellars and a tasting.

Wine has been made on this land since Roman times; the Palladian country house dates from 1682. The estate has been certified organic since 2009 and entirely organic, on biodynamic principles, since 2013. After a week of food cooked over a fire in buildings with no electricity, it is a very agreeable way to come back to the world.

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Your guide: Luc Richard

State-certified mountain leader (Accompagnateur en Montagne). The French national qualification for professional guiding in mountain terrain, held after formal training and examination. Mountain art guide certified by the Musée Gassendi. One of a small number of guides formally accredited by the museum to interpret the Collection d’Art en Montagne. Writer and former journalist. Correspondent in China for Géo, L’Express, Grands Reportages and Marianne. Ten years living in Beijing, Mandarin studied at the Beijing Language and Culture University, and several published books, including Voyage à travers la Chine interdite (Pocket, 2016). Graduate of Sciences Po Lyon. A long-distance walker. Two months in the uninhabited part of Tierra del Fuego; a 500-kilometre unsupported traverse of Iceland, 80 km of it across glacier; nearly thirty years of walking in Tibet and western China. Eight years guiding this particular route — and, by common consent of previous guests, the cook. Trained in wilderness first aid and carrying emergency communications equipment. All participants are automatically covered by my professional insurance, which includes search and rescue costs, including helicopter evacuation from the scene of an incident. Direct line: +33 6 08 16 66 44 (WhatsApp / Signal) · luc@lucrichard.fr

I designed both of these tours myself and I lead them myself — no local subcontractor, no rotating roster of guides. The group sets the pace. Nobody is left at the back on their own. And the person talking to you about herman de vries at eleven in the morning is the person cooking your dinner at eight.

In July 2026, The Connexion reported on the launch of these English-language tours in an article by Jessica Jones.

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Everything is taken care of from the moment you arrive

This is what travellers from abroad ask me about first, so let me be plain.

From 4:00 pm on Day 1 at Aix-en-Provence TGV station until 5:00 pm on the last day at the same station, you do not have to organise a single thing. No hire car, no rural bus timetables, no taxi negotiated in French at a station where nobody speaks English, no wondering where lunch is coming from. I meet you on arrival. There is a dedicated vehicle for the whole trip. Every transfer, every night, every meal and every entrance ticket is arranged and paid for in advance.

The tours are operated by Vercors Escapade, a licensed French travel agency, which means your booking carries the financial protection French law requires of a tour operator.

The food

Dinners on the hike are cooked on site, on a wood fire or in the fireplace: fresh goat’s cheese, vegetables, pulses and spices, country bread, lamb chops over the embers. Ingredients are organic and local, bought in bulk in glass and paper — part of a deliberate low-waste, low-carbon approach that also explains why we carry our own luggage rather than have it driven between refuges by 4×4. Picnics are made fresh each morning. At the Villa Gaia, Anne-Françoise cooks from the kitchen garden and the season.

Tell me about allergies and dietary requirements when you book and I will build the menus around them.

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Prices and what they include

Refuge d’Art hike — 8 days / 7 nights

• €1,590 per person (approx. US$1,670)
• Group of 5 to 8
• Optional sleeping kit rental: €70 (approx. US$74) — Valandré Mirage down sleeping bag (French-made, 750 g, comfort rating 0°C / 32°F), inflatable mat, silk liner, inflatable pillow. Handed to you on the evening of Day 1, so you never carry it on a day of walking. Ideal if you are flying in.
• Single room for Night 1 (Digne) and Night 7 (Château La Coste): on request

Chemins d’Art tour — 6 days / 5 nights

• €1,550 per person (approx. US$1,630)
• Group of 6 to 10
• Single room for the whole stay (Villa Gaia and Château La Coste): on request

Included in both

• All accommodation, from the night of Day 1 to the night before departure
• All meals from dinner on Day 1 to lunch on the final day — dinners, breakfasts and picnics
• All transport from Aix-en-Provence TGV station onwards: station or airport pick-up, every transfer during the trip, and the drop-off at the end
• Guiding throughout, in English, by a state-certified mountain leader and Musée Gassendi certified mountain art guide
• All entrances and visits: Musée Gassendi, Dromon chapel, Maison Alexandra David-Neel (hotel-based tour), the guided Art & Architecture Walk at Château La Coste, and the cellar tour and tasting
• Bicycle and helmet loan on Day 6 (hike)
• Cutlery kit, watertight picnic box and metal plate, given to you on the first morning (hike)
• Professional guide insurance including search and rescue

Not included

• Travel to Aix-en-Provence TGV station or Marseille airport, and travel after the end of the tour
• Any transport during the tour for personal convenience
• Drinks, alcoholic and soft, other than those included at certain accommodations and at the Château La Coste tasting
• Travel, medical and cancellation insurance
• Personal expenses
• Nights before or after the tour

Dates

Spring and autumn 2027. Exact departure dates are being finalised with the accommodations and will be released to the waiting list first. Groups are small, and these two seasons are the good ones here — warm days, cool nights, dry weather, nobody about.

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What previous guests say

Five-star Google reviews left by guests on the French-language editions of these tours, translated from the French.

« If you love art and you love walking: an exceptional trip. Luc is a wonderful guide and a wonderful initiator — his erudition, in every field, his logistics, his cooking, his attention to everyone. I recommend him absolutely. » — Yves, April 2025, Refuge d’Art hike

« Mountains as spectacle, art along the way, epicurean food on the plate, shared joy. This week was exceptional. Thank you, Luc, for adjusting the pace, for sharing your passion for herman de vries, for looking after us the whole way. We lived a suspended experience. » — Lorraine, October 2025, Refuge d’Art hike

« I don’t normally hike, and I struggled on some of the climbs. Luc was very patient and understanding, and went as far as shortening some routes to make them easier. I warmly recommend this experience of seeing superb works of art in the middle of breathtaking landscapes. » — Elena, June 2025, Refuge d’Art hike

« His explanations are clear and well-judged, his commentary both informed and personal — he shares what moves him. His leadership is firm and flexible at once: we keep to time, and we feel free. He has wide culture and experience, which he talks about willingly but never labours. » — Michèle, Refuge d’Art hike

« A guide-lecturer of great erudition, as compelling on geology, botany and philosophy as on contemporary art. Kindness, thoughtfulness and good humour throughout. » — Chloé, June 2025, Chemins d’Art tour

« In the evening our guide turns into an outstanding cook. Very organised, with quality ingredients carefully chosen and bought, he manages to produce delicious meals for eight people. Sheer art. » — Brigitte, October 2025, Refuge d’Art hike

Read more reviews

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Getting here

By air. Marseille Provence airport (MRS) has direct flights from London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva and most European hubs, with one-stop connections from North America and Australia via Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Istanbul. The airport is about twenty minutes from Aix-en-Provence TGV station, and I can meet you at either.

By rail. Aix-en-Provence TGV is three hours from Paris. There are direct TGV services from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, so you can land at CDG, walk to the platform inside the terminal, and be in Provence the same afternoon. From London, Eurostar to Paris connects to the TGV south.

Arriving a day early is a good idea if you are flying long-haul, and I would encourage it. The simplest way to do it is to add the optional day in Aix-en-Provence: a night in the city, a morning walking the old town with me, lunch, and then straight to the meeting point. If you would rather organise the night yourself, tell me and I will suggest hotels — the meeting point is the station, so there is nothing to rearrange.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I need to speak French?

No. These tours are run entirely in English, for English-speaking groups. All commentary and briefings are in English, the guided tour at Château La Coste is in English, and I handle every interaction with drivers, hotels, refuge keepers and museums on your behalf. Bring the three words of French you enjoy using; you will not need a fourth.

Once I reach Aix-en-Provence, is everything else arranged?

Yes — completely. I meet you at 4:00 pm on Day 1 at Aix-en-Provence TGV station or Marseille airport, and there is a dedicated vehicle for the whole trip. Every transfer, night, meal and entrance ticket is booked and paid for in advance, and I return you to the station at 5:00 pm on the last day. Between those two moments you need to organise nothing.

How fit do I need to be?

For the hike: graded 3/5. Three to five hours of walking a day, an average of 480 m (1,575 ft) of ascent, on natural mountain paths rather than wide tracks, carrying a pack of around 8 kg (18 lb) including food and water. It suits regular walkers in good general condition. It is not an athletic challenge, and the pace is deliberately moderate.

For the hotel-based tour: graded 2/5. Two to four hours a day with a light daypack, suitable for anyone who walks regularly. Neither tour is a performance, and I adapt the route to the group.

What is it actually like sleeping inside a Refuge d’Art?

Rustic, and unforgettable. These are rebuilt farm buildings and chapels in the middle of nowhere: no electricity, no running water, no beds. You sleep on wooden benches or the wooden floor, on your own mat and in your own sleeping bag. There is a fountain nearby for filling bottles and washing, and a latrine outside. There is a table, a fireplace, candlelight, and a sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy in the next room. Our group has the building entirely to itself — nobody else is admitted on the nights we are there. On the hike you do this twice, with comfortable gîtes and hot showers on the nights in between.

I’m flying from a long way away. Should I add the day in Aix?

If you are coming from North America, Australia or Asia, yes — I would almost insist on it. Landing at Marseille or Paris on the morning of Day 1 and starting a walking tour that evening is possible, but you will spend the first two days catching up with yourself. The optional Aix day gives you a night’s sleep, a level morning on paved streets, a proper lunch, and a soft start. It also means the first thing you see of Provence is Cézanne’s city rather than a station car park.

Do I need to buy a sleeping bag?

Only if you want one. A good lightweight down bag costs €300–400, which is a lot for one week, so I rent a complete kit for €70 for the whole trip: a French-made Valandré Mirage bag (750 g, comfortable to 0°C / 32°F), an inflatable mat, a silk liner and an inflatable pillow, all chosen to take up as little weight and volume as possible. I hand it to you on the evening of Day 1, so it never has to go in your hold luggage or on your back on the first day of walking. This is the option most guests flying in choose.

Can I have a single room?

On the hike, yes for Night 1 in Digne and Night 7 at Château La Coste, on request, with the supplement quoted at booking. The gîte nights are in shared rooms of two to four with private shower and toilet, and the two Refuge d’Art nights are communal by nature. On the hotel-based tour, single rooms are available for the whole stay on request, at both the Villa Gaia and Château La Coste. Numbers are limited, so ask early.

What about luggage — I’ll arrive with a suitcase.

Not a problem. You walk with a rucksack; your suitcase travels in the vehicle and is waiting for you at the end. I send a detailed kit list when you book, designed to get your pack down to around 8 kg all in.

Is this suitable if I’m travelling alone?

Very much so. Most guests come alone or as a couple, and the small group is a large part of why people book. The age range so far has been roughly 45 to 70. What they have in common is a willingness to spend a week somewhere quiet with a small number of interesting strangers.

Do I need to know about contemporary art?

Not at all, and it probably helps if you have no fixed views. Guests regularly tell me they booked for the walking and went home having changed their mind about what art can be. Out here art sits in stone, in weather, in the slow work of time.

What insurance do I need?

All participants are automatically covered by my professional guide insurance, which includes mountain search and rescue costs, including helicopter evacuation from the scene of an incident to hospital. Hospital care itself, cancellation, medical repatriation and baggage are not covered, so I strongly recommend comprehensive travel and medical insurance, and cancellation insurance, for anyone travelling from abroad.

Who operates the tour?

Vercors Escapade, a licensed French travel agency, under its own licence — so the booking carries the financial protection French law requires. I design and lead the tours; the agency handles the contract, the payment and the bonding.

What happens if the weather turns?

Spring and autumn in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence are usually dry, warm by day and cool at night, but storms are always possible and temperatures can drop quickly at altitude. The kit list covers it. If conditions require it I will modify the route, and the guide’s decision on the day’s programme is final — always in the interest of safety and comfort.

When exactly are the 2027 departures?

Spring and autumn 2027; the precise dates are being confirmed with the accommodations. Both tours run with small groups, and both have filled quickly in French. Tell me which season and which format interest you and I will contact you before the dates go public.

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Ready to walk?

A hundred and fifty kilometres of mountain path. A hundred works of contemporary art that nobody guards. Two nights inside a sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy. And a last day among vines and Tadao Ando concrete, with a glass in your hand.

Join the 2027 waiting list — or write to me directly at luc@lucrichard.fr, or +33 6 08 16 66 44 on WhatsApp or Signal. I answer every message myself, and I would far rather talk it through before you book than have you arrive on the wrong trip.

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Find out more

• Musée Gassendi — the Collection d’Art en Montagne
• UNESCO Haute-Provence Geopark
• Maison Alexandra David-Neel
• Château La Coste
• The French-language editions of these tours
• L’Art en montagne, the Musée Gassendi collection, Éditions Fage, 2024 — texts in French and English
• Refuges d’Art, Andy Goldsworthy, Éditions Fage, 2008
• Leaning into the Wind (2017), Thomas Riedelsheimer’s documentary on Andy Goldsworthy

Tours operated by Vercors Escapade, licensed travel agency. Luc Richard · luc@lucrichard.fr · +33 6 08 16 66 44 · lucrichard.fr