Arxelme circular walk starting from Saint-Symphorien

Park below the church of Saint-Symphorien, near the cemetery

Marked S2 circular loop by the La Symphorine association

(S/E) Below the former priory of Saint-Symphorien, with your back to the meadow and the information board, turn right onto the S2 marked trail. Continue for about 100 m, then follow the GRP® to the left for about 200 m.

(1) At the junction in the left-hand bend, leave the GRP® and take the path on the right; you will soon reach another crossroads.

(2) Turn left (ignore the path on the right, which will be the return route). Continue northwards along the path that climbs through the woods, ignoring any side paths.

(3) At a four-way junction, turn right. Keep heading east-north-east. At the junction at the 270-metre mark, go straight on. You’ll come to a dry-stone ruin on the left-hand side.

(4) Then turn right. At the next junction, turn left. At the T-junction, turn right and you’ll soon reach a crossroads marked by a central cairn.

(5) Follow the path to the right and head downhill. Note the trunks of old, moss-covered box trees. Head south into more open terrain and follow the ‘return’ sign.

(2) Ignore the path on the right that you took on the way out and head off to the left.

(1) Follow the^GRP® to the left, then the ‘Retour’ signposts, and head back to the meadow and the information board (S/E).

S2 circular loop marked by the La Symphorine association
You’ll need to stock up on provisions in Puylaroque or Caylus, as this circular route follows quiet country lanes with no villages nearby.

In fine weather, the meadow at the start (owned by the municipality of Puylaroque) is the perfect spot for a picnic break. You will also find an information board about the La Symphorine association. For everyone’s comfort and out of respect for others, please leave this place as clean as you found it

During the hunting season, from late August to late February, please do not stray from the marked paths, which are all rural tracks open to the public and listed in the Tarn-et-Garonne PDIPR (on either side of the path, the land is private property).

Saint Symphorien, a village nestled at the bottom of a valley: the Siétges.
- A 15th-century church listed in the inventory in 1948, though its origins date back further.
- A miraculous spring and its legends.
- A peaceful cemetery, facing the sky and the sun.
- Paths lined with dry-stone walls.
- The wildlife is varied. Particularly from spring to autumn, you may spot rabbits, hares, red squirrels and roe deer; during the day, numerous butterflies – some of which are protected – reptiles such as the ocellated lizard, and amphibians such as the green tree frog, the agile frog and the salamander; and in the evening, as night falls, the flight of bats, owls and barn owls. With a bit of luck, the friendly black-and-white badger might make an appearance.
- As for the flora, from the end of winter, the spotted fritillary (or water tulip) appears along the edges of the paths near the stream and in the damp meadows. Then, from spring through to summer, the 30 varieties of orchids bloom one after the other, alongside many other plants. This festival of colours comes to an end in late autumn with the blooming of purple colchicum in the damp meadows.
- Box trees: curiosities of nature, picturesque, vaguely eerie in the autumn mist, providing a protective canopy during heatwaves, and inspiring the wildest imagination.