Circular around the Côte Cent Huit from Berry-au-Bac

Park on Place du Maréchal Leclerc, near Berry-au-Bac Town Hall

(S/E). With your back to the town hall, turn left and walk down Avenue du Général de Gaulle (D 1044) on the pavement on the even-numbered side until you reach the bridge over the canal alongside the Aisne 550 metres further on.

(1) Immediately after the bridge, go down the embankment on the left, cross a lawn and take a path that runs alongside the canal for about 200 m.

(2) Turn left onto Rue de la Côte 108, cross the Canal de la Marne à l'Aisne and continue for about 1100 m.

(3) Turn right into the Sapigneul National Forest and take a forest path. After about 60 m, turn right again and climb the forest path that follows. Follow this path for 450 m until you reach the first intersection.

(4) Turn left and continue for 850 m until you reach the next intersection, ignoring two paths on the left.

(5) Continue straight ahead through the forest for 450 metres.

(6) Turn right and go down the forest path. At the hunting blind, turn left and walk along the edge of the forest for 200 m. At the end, go straight ahead, ignoring the path on the left, and walk for 200 m until you reach a T-junction.

(7) Take the right fork and follow it to a new wooded area.

(8) Turn left and continue to the D32.

(9) Turn right, follow the roadside and cross the Marne-Aisne Canal (caution: very narrow roadside in several sections with poor visibility).

(10) Turn right and take a grassy rural path (parallel to the Greenway). Ignore the first path on the left and take the second one.

(11) Turn left onto a grassy rural path, go straight ahead and continue to the next rural path.

(12) Turn right and continue straight ahead to rejoin the Greenway.

(13) Turn left onto the Greenway and follow the canal to reach Rue de la Côte 108.

(2) Turn left onto this street and you will come to Rue du Colonel Vergerac, which you should follow to the right.

(1) Continue along Avenue du Général de Gaull, in the opposite direction to the outward journey, and join Place du Maréchal Leclerc (S/E).

Another possible starting point: car parks near point (1), along the canal, which reduces the hike by 1100 metres.

La Côte 108, a place of remembrance

For more information: Sapigneul, memory of a vanished village.

The hamlet of La Neuville: between 1700 and 1910, La Neuville, with around fifty inhabitants, weathered the storms of the Revolution, the wars of the Empire and 1870 without suffering any vicissitudes. The village was made up of farmers and labourers; out of around ten dwellings, there were three farms and a watermill on the Loivre.

A fragment of our history, a player in great epics or a simple witness to life, La Neuville saw a final tragedy unfold. From the start of the conflict in 1914, completely destroyed by bombing, this hamlet was never rebuilt, a dead village slipping into oblivion. (Excerpts from an information panel located a few dozen metres after the point (9)).

The Maison Bleue National Cemetery: although accessible from the point (10), it is preferable to reach the site by car at the end of the hike, for safety reasons. From the car park near the Town Hall, head towards Reims and drive for about 3,500 metres until you reach a crossroads indicating Cormicy on the right.

The Tank War Memorial: return to your car in the Town Hall car park, head towards Laon and after 1,500 metres, at the roundabout, take the first exit (towards Gnignicourt). Car parks on the left after 100 metres. -