Adventure

La Grande Traversée du Morvan

The Burgundian granite massif on forest tracks: the Settons and Pannecière lakes, beech woods, peat bogs and stone villages.

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

Distance
144 km
Stages
5
Elevation gain
3 633 m
Difficulty
hard
La Grande Traversée du Morvan and its 5 stage points. Base map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Where to sleep on La Grande Traversée du Morvan

Halta lists 55 places to sleep within 5 km of the route: 41 campsites, 1 mountain hut, 5 bivouac spots, 8 hotels. For each one, the app shows the real detour from your stage — and it is that distance, not the straight line, that decides how a day ends.

  • Campsites
  • Mountain huts
  • Bivouac spots
  • Hotels

Alongside the campsites, mountain huts and bivouac spots drawn from open data, there are the hosts of the Halta community: travellers who welcome others into their homes, usually for free. You write to them before you come; you do not book a slot.

The 5 stages of La Grande Traversée du Morvan

An indicative split, drawn on real roads: distances and elevation come from route calculation, not from an estimate. In the app every stage can be adjusted — stretched, cut short, or pushed back a day.

Stages of La Grande Traversée du Morvan with distance and elevation gain.
#StageDistanceElevation
1 Avallon → Quarré-les-Tombes 19 km 430 m
2 Quarré-les-Tombes → Montsauche-les-Settons 22 km 688 m
3 Montsauche-les-Settons → Saulieu 21 km 590 m
4 Saulieu → Château-Chinon 42 km 1 148 m
5 Château-Chinon → Autun 40 km 777 m

Frequently asked questions about La Grande Traversée du Morvan

How many days does La Grande Traversée du Morvan take?

La Grande Traversée du Morvan takes about 4 days, split into 5 stages over 144 km — an average of 36 km a day. The split is indicative: stages stretch or shorten depending on your form and the weather.

Where can you sleep on La Grande Traversée du Morvan?

Halta lists 55 places to sleep within 5 km of La Grande Traversée du Morvan: 41 campsites, 1 mountain hut, 5 bivouac spots, 8 hotels. On top of those are the hosts of the Halta community, travellers who welcome others into their homes, usually for free.

How hard is La Grande Traversée du Morvan?

La Grande Traversée du Morvan is rated hard, with 3 633 m of cumulative elevation gain over 144 km. Per stage, that works out at roughly 727 m of climbing a day.

Where does La Grande Traversée du Morvan go?

La Grande Traversée du Morvan runs from Avallon to Autun, by way of Montsauche-les-Settons, Saulieu, Château-Chinon, across Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is travelled by bike and totals 144 km split into 5 stages.

Figures established on 17 September 2026, from Halta’s own data. How they are calculated.

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Étapes indicatives d'après la Grande Traversée du Morvan. Tracé reconstitué par routage (ODbL, openrouteservice.org). Halta 2026-07. Places to sleep: OpenStreetMap, refuges.info and DATAtourisme (ODbL). Photo : Wikimedia Commons (CC).