As there was none yet, we planned to set a female self-supported FKT for this stunning route without too much rush. It was a beautiful day, but we were surprised by the heat, and brought too little water. So when we ran into some of our friends who were out climbing, we took a few sips of their water (meaning this is now a supported FKT rather than a self-supported FKT). Quite dehydrated, we took a long break at Cassis before continuing on to La Ciotat, stocking up on water and coke.
Route finding was easy everywhere, except for 2km before the finish between St. Frétouse and La Ciotat, when we completely lost track and spend 20-30 minutes looking for it, before we bailed, went back, and took an alternative way to the finish. We followed the gpx provided above, but after taking a proper look at the map later, we think the track doesn’t continue right where we lost it. According to our GPS we were on route, but we are not sure what the male FKT runner has done here. We were there in the dark, and only found serious scrambling on steep walls. To get there, we also passed a sign that said the trail was closed.
We suggest not following the track of the first runner from St. Frétouse, but keep following the original trails on which this route was based on (url listed in the original FKT description).
At En Vau, one trail is temporarily closed at the moment due to construction works (possibly until Q1 2023). We took an alternative path with some easy scrambling here. We do not think it added many km’s.
So all in all, ours is a very beatable time :-) Prepare the route ahead, maybe have a look at the section between St. Frétouse and La Ciotat first, and pack plenty of water! This is a beautiful route.