Wander & Wonder

Lac d’Allos is a lovely alpine lake situated in the Mercantour National Park of France. Surrounded by mountain peaks and green meadows, this turquoise lake really looks like something out of a postcard. And after doing a bit of research, it turns out that it is the largest natural high-altitude lake in Europe, making it a definite must for your upcoming hiking trips.

Starting point

There are many possible parking spots for this hike depending on how far you want to walk. On that day we were particularly pressed for time (quick backstory: we got lost and ended up driving on a winding, gravel trail which unfortunately turned out to be a dead-end that led us into a field…then the descent took us a full hour because the car kept sliding and barely fit on the path to begin with) so we started at Parking du Laus. This parking lot cost us 5 euros, but it was well worth it in our case!

Getting to the lake

From Parking de Laus, follow the trail markers heading towards Lac d’Allos. The initial part of the hike is quite tiring as it is basically all uphill. But on the bright side, it only took us about 30 minutes to reach the lake. The views along the ascent are also super pretty, so take a lot of photo pit-stops along the way!

Tour around the lake

At the top you are greeted with a spectacular view of Lac d’Allos. From here, we went to the right of the refuge and started our walk along the lake’s perimeter. The circuit around the lake is about 6 km and took us about 2 hours as we stopped half-way for a lunch break. Along the way, we saw many marmots (all of which managed to avoid my camera despite my best efforts) and little fish in the lake. Once we had arrived back at our starting point, we visited a charming little chapel located right above the refuge.

Perhaps the best part of our day was on our drive back through the mountain roads, where we were greeted by a friendly Great Pyrenese farm dog (whom we named Bergamo).

I hope you get to visit this lovely place one day. And if you do, be sure to say hello to Bergamo for us (and don’t forget to give him a big piece of cheese and a lot of scratches)!