After 54 days on foot, a long-distance hiker walked into the small French town of Le Caylar at 8am, bought a huge flute bread from the bakery, drowned it in peanut butter, and called his Hexatrek complete. His total spend for nearly two months of walking? Roughly €500 — just under €10 a day, covering food, campsites, transport and gear replacement.
The Hexatrek is a relative newcomer to Europe's long-distance scene, stitching together established French trails into one continuous route that includes serious Alpine terrain. Because the connected paths are well maintained and well graded, it makes some of the steepest mountains in the Alps surprisingly walkable. The full thru-hike hasn't caught on in big numbers yet — the route is still in its infancy — but don't expect solitude the whole way. Some stretches deliver empty paths all day, while others are busy with French day-hikers and weekend trekkers.
The final approach into Le Caylar summed up the route's character: rolling farmland, hedgerows, fences, and plenty of livestock. The hiker's last night was spent camped near a flock guarded by patous — the large white guardian dogs French shepherds use, which hikers on rural French trails learn to respect quickly. He woke to barking closer than he'd have liked, but packed up unbitten and covered the last three kilometres past two very vocal farm dogs protecting their sheep.
What makes this account genuinely useful is the budget detail. Camping wild every night and buying all food at supermarkets worked brilliantly — the hiker says he ate well and slept like a champion, and would happily repeat both choices on any French hike. About half the budget went on food, a quarter on paid campgrounds, and the rest on occasional transport and replacing gear. For context, that's only marginally more per day than he spent hiking the Appalachian Trail the previous year — France can be done dirt cheap if you're self-sufficient.
There was one catch: relentless heatwaves in Europe during the 2026 summer made this, in his words, the hottest sustained period he's ever experienced on trail. Anyone planning a summer walking trip in France should take that seriously — shoulder season looks increasingly attractive.
The finish itself carried the familiar emotional whiplash of a long hike: relief at giving the body a break, and a strange grief at losing the simple daily rhythm of walking. From Le Caylar, the hiker cobbled together 40 hours of buses and budget flights to Malaysia — ending up in Melaka with a self-declared best-ever dinner of tandoori chicken, garlic naan and a large lassi. He'd earlier detoured to Sumatra mid-hike, and while he cut the trail short for it, the photos of that side trip apparently speak for themselves.
For travellers, the takeaway is simple: France's long-distance trails are accessible, cheap and logistically easy if you're willing to camp and self-cater. The Hexatrek may be young, but the infrastructure beneath it is anything but. Full credit to The Trek for the original story.
