Hiking With the In Crowd

As we set off to the south, the group's volunteer leader, a take-charge woman named Martine, shows me a detailed map of our carefully prepared route: we'll walk along the beach, then inland through farms and a few secluded hamlets, then back to the water. In three hours or so, we'll cover eight or nine miles, all flat. Some people in the group, she explains, will leave us partway through the trek for a shorter option. "We usually walk with 50 to 85 people, most of them retired," Martine says. "Today we have 74. Anytime we walk by the sea, more people come out," she adds. … Back to Article