Festival des Templiers

Festival des Templiers: the founding epic of French trail

The Festival des Templiers is the biggest mountain trail event in France and one of the founding pillars of European trail running: 32 editions since 1995, 13,000 runners from 45 countries, and 18 races run at the same time on the Causses of Millau, the most technical limestone plateau in the country. It is not a single-loop race that draws people in: it is a rural, human-scale festival that turns Millau and its mountain villages into the centre of the trail community for four days.

The 2026 edition will keep the format: distances for everyone, from an 8 km introductory race to the L’Endurance Trail over 100 km with 4,300 metres of elevation gain. But the emblematic test is the Grand Trail des Templiers over 80.7 km: the exact distance that defines how hard the Causses are.

A course of loose stone and no shade

The Causses of Millau are a limestone plateau made technical by nature: paths of fine and coarse loose stone, deep gorges cut by the Tarn and the Jonte, a flat horizon without a single tree to shelter under. At 1,000 metres of altitude, October brings long, clear days, but the sun reflected off the white limestone is relentless.

The Grand Trail route links the classic names of the Causses:

• Causse Noir (the black plateau, named after its dark stones)
• Causse du Larzac (the great Roquefort lies below)
• The gorges of the Tarn and the Jonte, epigenetic ravines with 500-metre escarpments
• Villages such as Nant, La Cavalerie, Aguessac: authentic, small, free of mass tourism

The terrain is ruthless with your feet: technical descents where one misplaced step costs you a rolled ankle, climbs where the loose stone forces you to push with your hands. At 50 km the quadriceps scream. At 70 km your feet are a single burning lump. At 80 there is nothing left but to finish.

Causses: heat, altitude and isolation

October in the Causses is deceptive: the calendar says autumn, but at 1,000 metres of altitude, in full sun and with no forest, the temperature climbs. Solar radiation is the main enemy, not the cold. Dehydration lurks: without shade the body loses water constantly.

The aid stations of the Festival are legendary for their generosity (fresh fruit, homemade biscuits, isotonic drinks), but in a 15-18 hour ultra self-sufficiency is vital. Carrying your own gels, salt tablets and food keeps your energy steady in a way that the aid stations alone cannot cover. And carbon poles are no luxury: the descents of the Larzac ask for smart knees, not heroic ones.

The Causses beyond the Festival

Millau is Roquefort, the viaduct suspended in mid-air, villages of a thousand inhabitants where the stone of the region is the currency. It is worth stretching the weekend trip into a week-long one: drive around the region, taste sheep’s-milk cheeses and local wines, and watch how the white mountain becomes part of the identity of Occitanie.

If this is your first French trail running festival, the Templiers will show you why France is the cradle of the sport: sustainability, community, history and relentless nature, all of it in October on the Causses. Afterwards the UTMB in Chamonix awaits in September, and you will have completed the founding pair: Alps and Causses, altitude and technique, snow and stone.

Organize your trip with the race planner and browse all the races in France to chain events together.