Encouraged by the beautiful photos I decided to visit this parc. The beginning was promisisng, as after leaving the main roa there was a gate "Welcome to NP Mont Avic". It was the last reference to the parc there was. The location posted in TA is NOT the parc, but its management office in the middle of a village. The office was empty when I arrived. So I continued along the road, which was very narrow and several kilometres of hairpins, leading up the mountain. There was no signage to the parc whatsoever. I got to the top - no signage, no directions to the parc. So I went down, believing I made a mistake and the road was via the village. I squeezed through its narrow streets - again, no signage. Thus I came back to the main road and I decided to just drive on. I only wish I had not wasted my time looking for it. If they try to hide from toursits on purpose, they could not make a better job. I also read that somebody got lost in the parc due to poor trail signs, so they seem to be consistent. Just give it a miss.

This was probably the most challenging hike we have ever done. Part of it is on us, since at the start of the hike we went up the wrong path (4, rather than 5) - it took us several hours to realize we had started off wrong and to reorient ourselves. It is a very steep climb and not well marked. We did eventually make it to the rest house (rather expensive, not a lot of food offerings, and the coffee was weak, but the man behind the bar was very friendly). There were plenty of opportunities to refill our water bottles with refreshing Alpian water from fountains, and we climbed for 4 hours without seeing a single other person. It is very clean, and you can appreciate the glory of the Alps. If we had kept to the original path it may have been slightly easier (rather than nearly 8 hours!)