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Geoff and Alexa are in France! But they’re not eating croissants or sipping wine. They’re heading to the mountains. The Alps to be specific! They’ll spend 3 full days and 2 nights hiking through the wild back country of France’s most epic mountain range. Throughout it all, they’ll see native French wildlife, sleep in France’s unique mountain refuges, and undertake the most challenging backpacking trip of their lives. So, will they survive? Yes, but only barely.
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Chapters:
0:00 – The Almost Top of France
0:44 – The Journey Begins
3:05 – Trip Itinerary
4:07 – Mercantour National Park
5:36 – The Old Mine Detour
6:23 – Our First Alpine Lake
8:06 – Incredible French Wildlife
9:23 – Treacherous Downhill Descent
11:05 – The Unique Alps Refuge System
12:48 – Our First Refuge Experience
17:23 – The Dawn of Day Two
18:51 – On the Trail Again
19:23 – Review of the First Night
20:47 – Mid-Hike Update (It’s Hard)
21:18 – Another Alpine Lake & Snack Time
21:43 – Somehow… the Hike Got Harder
22:00 – We Made It to the Top!
23:28 – Refuge Lunch Review
24:42 – All Downhill From Here
26:48 – Our Second Refuge
31:35 – The Final Stretch of the Hike
33:26 – Our Final Peak & Lunch
34:27 – We Made it Across the French Alps!
35:31 – Bloopers
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This video was filmed in August 2025.
26 Comments
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By any chance will you plan on visiting Nova Scotia and the other Maritime provinces of Canada
Why in the world sare you wearing tennis shoes and not sturdy hiking shoes or boots ?
Do you get paid per sound effect Geoff? Less is more, brother!
I saw a video a few weeks back from Scottish YouTuber Steve Marsh and his partner Alicija when to an alpine lake near the Poland-Slovakia border and it seemed that area just had the first snow so the lake area with the restaurant looked fantastical (but not so good for those continuing to the border high point)
Those trees are probably a variety of Larch. They are deciduous and thrive in colder climates.
I'm sure Tolkien and CS Lewis were very inspired by the French alps although both early 2000's film adaptations were shot in New Zealand (I think Narnia was, but I could be wrong)
Corsica is a cool choice
Looks too tiring for me, but I love your adventures together. I want to go to Carcassonne, through Limoux, to Rennes-le-Chateau.
Such a fun channel, thanks for bringing us along!
We are so impressed that climb was something. What beauty and wonder all around. Thanks for sharing and taking us along.
Amazing accomplishment! Thanks for sharing your adventure.
I love all the weird little bits you throw in for emphasis. But I really laughed hard when you showed Alexa screaming 'I don't know if I will ever be happy again! I hate him!' I've actually felt that way on some of my Rocky Mtn hikes–I'm from Colorado.
Well, definitely this was a challenge, however, how many people can say they hiked the Alps? Good on you! I am tired just watching you, so I can imagine how exhausting that was!
Really?? Hiking an alpine bounder field in sneakers?
Thank you Two So much for this…..brought back sweet memories for me……❤
You guys should have had hiking boots.
Ah yes the Alps.
You think hiking is bad just remember Hannibal tried to cross those mountains with elephants during the Punic Wars and more recently there battles there in both World Wars…
Beautiful nature
The English name for un bouquetin is an ibex – the ones you see here are a sub-species of those found in the Pyrenees (on the Franco-Spanish border). They were almost hunted to extinction by the Dukes of Savoy (who later became the Kings of Italy) and all of this were their hunting grounds. It got to the point when they decided that they had to create a reserve for them before there weren't any left. That was on the Italian side, which is why they created the Mercantour National Park on the French side. It wasn't easy as there are still a lot of hunters who wish to carry on hunting anyway.
Hey pls do a video on Mauritius, I'm from Mauritius ^^
Thanks for making me tired.
I really wish you would translate meters into feet (consistently, not sporadically). Distances expressed in meters are completely meaningless to my aged American brain!
That was an interesting video. But you guys need better footwear for those hikes.
Mate, if you're Frodo Baggins, you've picked up a first rate Samwise Gamgee. Pretty sure I'll offend your other friends if I refer to them as Merry, Pippen and Gandalf, so I deliberately won't do that. Those goats and deer(?) look big and healthy considering their not near much pastureland. Nature finds a way I guess. As an Australian, I'm used to countryside that's stingy about giving away calories, but I've not seen anything quite like this. I've probably only ever visited country like this when a lift carries me up, and I get to ski down. I know this is your travel channel, but an occasional insight into how the geography of this was formed would interest me.