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Park in the Bois des Naix car park (Rue Albert Lebrun) in Bourg-de-Péage.
(S/E) Head towards Avenue René Coty, turn left and when you reach the main road (towards Besayes), turn right. Pass a veterinary surgery and a garage. You will then arrive at the green gate at the entrance to Bois des Naix Park. Enter the park.
(1) Follow the main path through the park, which runs alongside the Maladière stream. Admire the trees and greenery!
(2) After crossing the stream, you will see a sign for "Espace Sports d'Orientation" (Orienteering Area): directly opposite, go up the tarmac path to see "Le cerf" (The Stag) by local sculptor Toros. Go back down the stairs on the right to reach the stream, which you follow to the left until you pass under a low archway at the entrance to the town. Continue by turning left and then climb the steps to exit the park.
(3) When you exit through the gate, turn left and continue keeping to the left. Just after passing the vegetable gardens, take the stairs on the left (just before the ochre-coloured building).
(4) Join the metal footbridge, which is also known as "La véloroute voie verte de la vallée de l'Isère" (the Isère Valley greenway cycle route).
Cross the footbridge and, shortly afterwards, at the first intersection, leave the greenway opposite and turn right onto a tarmac path that climbs between a wall on the left and a wild hedge.
At the top, you will arrive in front of a large company (white and blue colours). Leave Chemin de Bellevue on your right and continue until you reach Rue de Bellevue-Salvador Allende. Turn left, pass in front of the Hôtel des Ors and near some stone blocks, you will see the sign for "La Coulée Verte".
(5) Turn right, heading north on the gravel path, then straight ahead on the grassy path at a group of poplar trees. Pass in front of the École des Ors. At the school car park, take the street on the left, then the first right. Pass in front of a permanent shelter for rubbish bins (Hameau du Valois) and you will come out on Rue Calixte Lafosse.
(6) Turn right and follow this street to the cemetery.
Turn left just after the cemetery entrance onto Clos des Capucins (beautiful view of the old bridge and the town).
(7) Opposite, enter the François Mitterrand park (rusty sculpture) and turn left. After a wall, turn right and go down a path through the greenery. At the bottom of the path, turn right and walk past the "Cité de la Musique", keeping to the right. You will arrive at the "Berges de l'Isère" car park.
Notice the houses lined with wooden balconies on the upper floor; these are former tanners' houses (the balconies were used to dry the hides).
(8) Below these houses, find the Josaphat staircase, climb it and you will come out onto Rue Pêcherie. Walk down this street (15th-century house with corbelling) until you reach the church, Collégiale Saint-Barnard.
Cross the "Pont Vieux" bridge on the right to return to Bourg-de-Péage.
(9) At the end of the bridge, on the right, go down the stairs and arrive at the well-appointed banks of the Isère... Follow the banks to the metal footbridge, which you will not cross this time.
(4) Continue straight ahead and rejoin the outward route. Continue to the Bois des Naix park, cross it to return to the starting point (S/E).
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