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Start from the car park near the church in Vieilles-Maisons-sur-Joudry.
Red and white markings (GR®3B)
(S/E) With your back to the church, turn left onto Rue du Bourg, then, after 50m, turn right onto the grassy path running alongside the Courpalet ditch. The straight path crosses Rue du Pré Cormier, then joins Rue des Gléaux. Follow this street, passing a turn-off on the right, then another on the left.
(1) Leave the tarmac and the canal at a place called La Petite Noue, turning onto the grassy path on the left, the Chemin du Vieux Nid. This is followed by a wide lane before intersecting the Rue du Port, which runs across. Continue straight ahead on the street which, after about a hundred metres, leads onto the Route du Bas de Grignon.
(2) Head left onto the Route du Bas de Grignon, which crosses the Canal d’Orléans. At the Bas de Grignon lock, leave the tarmac and take the towpath running alongside the lock on the left. This path bends to the right to run alongside the Joudry, then the Canal d’Orléans. Pass the Grignon middle lock, then the Gué des Cens lock.
No signposting
(3) Pass the Point de Partage lock after crossing a side street and continue along the towpath bordering the canal, staying on the same bank, before reaching the Étang de la Noue Mazone to the left of the canal.
(4) At the crossroads, continue along the Route des Mariniers, still running alongside the canal. The road turns left to cross the canal at the Pont de la Verrerie, then follows a wide, straight forest track, the Route de la Verrerie, which enters the Forest of Orléans. Ignore the side paths until you reach the three-way junction. Cross the first crossroad and continue straight ahead along the track.
(5) After about a hundred metres, at the three-way junction, leave the main path and take the left-hand path, the Route des Pommereaux, to the next junction.
(6) Leave the path on the left, then take a barely visible grassy track, keeping to the left and heading east. This track crosses the Rigole de Courpalet. As soon as you have crossed the ditch, turn right and follow it along the grassy path heading south-east.
(7) When the path meets a cross-path, turn right onto a grassy path running parallel to it so as not to stray from the ditch. This path becomes clearer once you have crossed Rue de la Petite Forêt, until you come to a pond.
(8) Facing the pond, turn left to follow the Rigole de Courpalet. Pass a series of ponds on your left. To go round a large pond, the path makes two left-hand bends about a hundred metres apart, whilst crossing the Joudry. Still running alongside the Rigole de Courpalet, it eventually crosses the Rue du Bourg at the starting point of the walk (S/E).
Visorando member
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Difficult 
