Avignon is a long way from the Frenche Alps - about 200k as the crow flies. So the first part of the walk, mostly on the GR6, is hilly but not mountainous leading into the pre-alps, averaging around 1,000 metres and finally after 2 weeks of hiking, we reached the real Alps with average elevations of 2 to 3000 metres at Savines Le Lac on Lac de Serre-Poncon before reaching Briancon and continuing north on the GR5. The Google Earth map below cleary shows the transition in topography.
