Balcons du Suzon, part 3

Part 3 of the “Les Balcons du Suzon” trail
A lovely, gentle trail walk through light woodland and along the cliff face.
See notes in the practical information section.

Details

n°86267

Creation:
29 Oct 2014

Last update:
27 Feb 2020

Last review:
26 Aug 2025

Activity: Walking
Distance: 7.70 km
Average duration: 2h 45
Difficulty: Easy
Back to start: Yes
Ascent: + 207 m
Descent: - 206 m
Highest point: 498 m
Lowest point: 318 m

Country: France
District: Val-Suzon (21121)
Start/End: N 47.434845° / E 4.956638°
IGN map(s): Ref. 3022ET
Hour-by-hour weather

Avalanche risk assessment bulletin

Discover Visorando Premium

Downloads

Open in the mobile app

Download GPX GPX

Download PDF PDF

Photos

View of the Val Suzon - Path along the Combe du Prau

Description of the walk

Car park at Sainte-Foy.

(S/E) From Sainte-Foy, take the D7 towards Val Suzon. After the Pont du Suzon, turn left onto a path leading to the Route forestière de Jouvence (^GR®7).

(1) Follow this to the right for about 300m. Ignore the first path on the left which climbs straight up the slope and take the second one which climbs diagonally (blue markings).
This path winds its way up the slope. At each junction, always take the path that goes uphill.
At the first junction, turn left. At the second, turn right; there is then a hairpin bend to the left. At the next junction, turn right. After two further junctions where the blue markings are clearly visible, you reach the 476m mark.

(2) The path turns left and follows this curve for about 300m to reach a four-way junction. Take the second path on the right (marked); it is the only one that follows the top of the cliffs. After about 300m, take the path on the right and follow it, ignoring the paths branching off to the right. After a good kilometre, you will reach a crossroads.

(3) Ignore the path on the left which descends into the Combe du Prau. Ignore the one on the right which leads to the Roy Jeannot Forest House. Turn left until the next junction (about 400m). Do not take the first path on the left, which also descends into the valley; ignore the paths on the right and also the one straight ahead leading into a field (a place known as ‘Le Saussois’).
Turn left into the woodland and follow the path for about 500m. Ignore the path on the left and turn sharply right.
Follow this path for about 200m until you reach a sign indicating: Roche Tire-Barbe 40 metres.

(4) It is at this point that this route leaves the Balcons du Suzon to return to the starting point.
Take the path on the left (Roche Tire-Barbe). You’ll reach a small cliff, which you should go round to the left (several ledges to descend carefully but without any particular difficulty).
Descend straight down beneath the rock (small scree slope) to find the start of the path, which descends steeply for about 400m and 150m in elevation to^{the GR®7}, which you follow to the left to reach the junction at the start of the route.

(1) Turn right to join the D7, then right again to the car park (S/E)

Waypoints

S/E : km 0 - alt. 330 m - Car park at Sainte-Foy - Suzon (rivière)
1 : km 0.47 - alt. 332 m - Turn right onto the track
2 : km 1.87 - alt. 472 m - Turn left onto the path
3 : km 3.76 - alt. 487 m - To the left
4 : km 5.07 - alt. 478 m - Roche Tire Barbe
S/E : km 7.7 - alt. 331 m - Car park at Sainte-Foy

Notes

Standard hiking gear, or even trail running shoes for those who fancy a bit of a jog.

The return along the^GR®7, cutting straight across beneath the Roche Tire Barbe, may seem arduous and a bit steep, especially if you’re with children. In that case, you can continue a little further along the cliff-side path to^{the GR®7}at elevation 484. From there, the^GR® descends directly to the Fontaine de Jouvence on a gentler slope; you then follow it on level ground back to the starting point.

Of course, the route up to the 484m mark is better and less steep, but you’ll need to allow more time. At least a good hour.

Worth a visit

In fine weather, there are various views over the Val Suzon and the cliffs.

Reviews and comments

4.1 / 5

Based on 6 reviews

Reliability of the description
4 / 5

Ease of following the route
4.3 / 5

Route interest
4 / 5

globetrotteur

26 Aug 2025 at 18:14 7200

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 25, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Very busy route : Yes

Hello,
It would be better to describe the difficulty of this walk as "moderate" because of the last part on the scree slope.
It should be noted that the route is uphill at the beginning and requires a warm-up.
Otherwise, the route is a bit monotonous and when it says "along the cliffside", apart from Roche Tire Barbe, there is nothing to see.
That said, the circuit is used by mountain bikers and joggers.
We tested our endurance anyway!

Machine-translated

Pascale21000

04 Nov 2024 at 11:00 3600

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 29, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Finally, to avoid the steep descent at point 4, we retraced our steps and took the previous path

Machine-translated

FloN

17 Jul 2023 at 11:49 7200

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Jul 09, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Watch out for the "slightly" technical descent before reaching the Fontaine de Jouvence if you're on a family hike...
Otherwise, it’s easy and enjoyable.

Machine-translated

jmm211

08 Oct 2018 at 08:42 7200

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 05, 2018
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Hello,
The walk is quite nice, but towards the end, from point (4) onwards, there’s a descent (several steps to be taken down carefully but without any particular difficulty) that I find borderline dangerous, especially if there are children.

Machine-translated

philipsal

04 Oct 2016 at 22:59 7200

Hi
To avoid the steep descent from the Roche Tire Barbe, I had suggested that we could continue further along the route and rejoin the GR7, which crosses it, and then descend at that point.
For your information, sections 1 to 4 were part of a partial reconnaissance with a view to later completing the entire route from the Parc aux Chevaux at the exit of Messigny in the direction of Messigny-Sainte-Foy.

I hope you enjoyed this section; personally, I prefer the Parc aux Chevaux to Ste Foy section

Best regards

Philipsal

Machine-translated

colboi1817

04 Oct 2016 at 20:51 7200

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 04, 2016
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

The descent to join the GR7 is a bit of a slog; I wanted to try it, but it’s impossible with a large group
and not very fit. An interesting route that I’d somewhat forgotten.

Machine-translated

gazok54

11 Nov 2015 at 09:25 3600

Thank you, I've sent the author a private message.

Machine-translated

BREIZH 21

11 Nov 2015 at 09:03 3600

Hello,
Yes, I would have rated it GOOD if it had mentioned following the markings all the way to the ‘roche tire-barbe’, and I would have rated this hike as moderate difficulty because the descent is very steep and not easy – I’m thinking particularly of families with young children.

Machine-translated

gazok54

10 Nov 2015 at 20:52 3600 • Edited: 10 Nov 2015 at 20:52 3600

Thank you, BREIZH 21.
If it hadn’t been for that brief mention of signposting in the description – which doesn’t really add much in the end – would you have rated this walk as ‘good’ or even better? If so, we’ll remove that detail.

Machine-translated

BREIZH 21

10 Nov 2015 at 11:23 3600

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of your route : Nov 08, 2015
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Hello,
A lovely walk through the forest with beautiful autumn colours; the path is easy, but be careful not to follow the blue markings from the Roche Tire-Barbe (we walked an extra 3 km following these markings before realising our mistake) The descent from the Roche Tire-Barbe (CAF trail) is very tricky; with the leaves, it’s really slippery and the slope is very steep. You must go all the way down; do not take the first path that crosses it.

Machine-translated

Other walks in the area

Les Balcons du Suzon, part 2

Departure from Messigny-et-Vantoux (Côte-d'Or)

This is another section (2) of the marked trail "Les Balcons du Suzon". It follows on from the first route starting from Messigny-et-Vantoux towards Sainte-Foy. Part of the route is through woods and hillsides with views of the Val Suzon. The walking time depends on the hiker. The time indicated was calculated based on half walking and half trail running. From the start in Sainte Foy: 1 hour 30 minutes. From Sainte Foy back via theGR®7: 30 minutes (jogging pace).

The Balcons du Suzon are easy to access from the Maison Forestière du Roy Jeannot.

Departure from Étaules (Côte-d'Or) (Côte-d'Or)

For an almost complete tour of the Suzon balconies, on the right bank, starting from the Maison Forestière du Roy Jeannot. An easy, not very long route with little elevation gain, allowing you to admire the most beautiful panoramas of this part of the Val Suzon.

For more walks, use our search engine .

The GPS track and description are the property of this route's author. Please do not copy them without permission.

Author

philipsal
13 Walks

Visorando member

District: Talant (21240)

Machine-translated walk - Original version

Walk map

Bigger map and chart