Our research approach is a contribution related to the contemporary social sciences debate around mobility (KAUFMANN, VIARD, LEVY, LUSSAULT, URRY, STOCK) and especially recreational mobility (MIT, MICHEL, REAU, COUSIN, DEWAILLY, BOURDEAU, CHRISTIN). Therefore our field of work is cultural geography, sometimes seen as having taken a sociological turn (STASZAK, 2004). Following the chronological order of this manuscript, the reader will first encounter a presentation of the theoretical issues linked to the consideration of recreational practices “in motion”. The first chapter aims at identifying the mutations of the relationships between society and mobility in a broad sense, and reflecting about the input of post modernity in order to apprehend them better. The second chapter focuses the analysis on a specific notion and practice: “itinérance”, i.e. recreational travel. The aim of this chapter is to identify its outline and interest, through a geo-cultural approach basing on the existing notions to study recreational practices. In a second stage, recreational travel (on foot) is positioned within the area of recreational activities: which place and which contributions? To that effect the third chapter sets out a panorama of heuristic issues in the field of tourism, presenting the various possible research approaches and emerging notions. The fourth chapter, through the analysis of experience accounts of walkers, aims at validating the input of post-tourism in order to apprehend the compromise linked to these practices. When followed in a linear way, this route ends with a part entirely dedicated to GTA and its integration in the field of recreational practices, and especially in the “layer cake” of recreational travel: is it an alternative for territorial development and alpine tourism or a modern form of travelling tourism? In order to provide an answer, chapter five analyses the singularity of this association in the alpine landscape both at the French and European levels. Chapter 6 establishes the idea that GTA is a structure of the in-between, both manager of tourist routes and coordinator of an activity chain.
