Most Inspirational Moment
I think this was reaching the pic de Caramantran at 3025 metres in the moderate-grade group (bear in mind that the walk started at 2340m that day). There were excellent views of mont Viso in Italy, which still had some snow on it. You could walk over the border into Italy for a few minutes. It was windy there. Everyone shook hands on reaching this point.
Thoughts on Group Leader
I walked with both group leaders on different days. Both were very competent and spoke English very well. Both had a good knowledge of the history of the local area and knew the routes well. Yves led the challenging walks and Isabelle led the moderate walks. Both guides ate with the group in the evenings. On the free day, they gave us an informal tour of the village, explaining its history. On the challenging walk on the last day, there were some difficult stretches near the top and Yves made sure everyone was safe. The leaders provided marked-up contour maps of the walking areas, something I have not experienced before on this type of holiday. This helped clients to make up their minds which grade of walk to go on.
Advice for Potential Travellers
It's a good idea to have walking poles if you are going to do the challenging-grade walks.