Hiking in France didn't organize itself. Behind the thousands of kilometres of marked trails crossing the mountains and countryside, there's a quiet but foundational institution: the Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre. Founded in 1947 under a different name, the FFRP patiently built the network you might walk without giving it a second thought, with its two-colour markers painted on rocks and its small guidebooks tucked into your pack. Here's the story of an organization that changed the way people hike in Haute-Savoie and across France.
Post-war origins
In 1947, a group of enthusiasts founded the Comité National des Sentiers de Grande Randonnée. France was rebuilding after World War II, and many felt a strong need to reconnect with the national landscape. The ambition was straightforward but enormous: create a network of trails crossing the country end to end, linking mountain ranges, valleys, and villages. Not routes for seasoned athletes, but paths open to everyone, often following ancient transhumance routes, trade roads, or pilgrimage ways.
The first marked trails appeared in the 1950s, with the network growing slowly, driven by volunteers who believed walking should stay accessible to all. That founding principle has never changed.
From Committee to Federation
Over the following decades, the organization took shape. In 1978, the Committee officially became the Fédération Française de la Randonnée Pédestre. The name change reflected a new reality: the network now covered the entire country, local associations had multiplied, and volunteers numbered in the tens of thousands. The Ministry of Sports recognized the FFRP as the delegated federation for hiking in France, giving it clear responsibilities.
These include certifying routes, training trail markers, publishing guidebooks, and representing hikers in dealings with public authorities. It sounds administrative, but you feel the work every time you pass a freshly repainted blaze on a rock deep in the mountains.
Trail marking: a shared language
What makes the network readable is its marking system. The FFRP standardized paint markings applied directly to rocks, trees, and wooden posts. Three levels exist.
- GR (Grandes Randonnées) trails carry two horizontal stripes: white over red. They trace long-distance routes, sometimes spanning several days or weeks of walking across mountain ranges or national borders.
- GRP (Grandes Randonnées de Pays) use a red stripe over yellow. They form loops around a massif or region, designed for multi-day exploration of a specific area.
- PR (Promenades et Randonnées) carry a single yellow stripe. These are the day hikes and half-day walks: the most numerous and most used trails in the network.
This system tells you at a glance which type of trail you're on, without checking the map at every junction. If a blaze fades or a cairn collapses, you simply look for the next marker in the same colour.
The topo-guides: a legendary series
The FFRP is also a publisher. Since the 1950s, it has produced topo-guides: booklets describing routes in detail, with elevation profiles, IGN map excerpts, estimated walking times, water sources, and accommodation options. The earliest editions were modest pamphlets. Today the collection runs to hundreds of titles covering the entire country.
These guides transformed hiking. Before them, you needed a local guide, hard-to-read topographic maps, or solid prior knowledge of the terrain. With a topo-guide in your pocket, anyone could set off independently on a GR for the first time. That accessibility helped drive the surge in hiking across France in the decades that followed.
The FFRP in Haute-Savoie
In Haute-Savoie, the FFRP's work and that of its affiliated associations is visible everywhere. The département is crossed by several major GR trails linking alpine valleys and summits, while PR routes cover dozens of day-hike itineraries across every massif. The Vallée du Giffre, the Chablais, and the Aravis-Bornes all benefit from a dense, well-maintained network, kept up each spring by volunteer trail markers before the season begins.
Hikes like Le Môle via Saint-Jeoire and the Reray loop rely on this certified network. If you're staying in Saint-Jeoire or Samoëns, local tourist offices often stock regional topo-guides to complement the trail notes you'll find on this site.
Tens of thousands of volunteers keep this network running across France. If you ever come across a trail marker being repainted on a remote path, you're looking at someone giving their time so your next outing goes well. At its core, the FFRP is exactly that: a human organization driven by people who love walking.