The “Circular Trail of Remembrance” in Blanot

Park in the Blanot car park, near the hotel-restaurant and the war memorial.

(S/E) Turn right, passing the “book exchange”, the wash house, the fountain and the communal oven. When the road splits in two, turn left to discover the Romanesque Church of Saint-Martin, the priory and the Merovingian graves.

(1) Turn right again and, at the junction that appears immediately, turn left onto a small road. After the pottery workshop and before a tennis court, turn left and head up the stony path. At the ‘Chemin de Verne’ signpost (elevation 467), carry on straight ahead along the^GR®76A(red and white markings). Continue uphill until you come to a wide path.

(2) Then leave the^GR® 76A and follow the path opposite to the right. Walk along this ridge path for fifteen to twenty minutes to reach the Bois des Brosses crossroads.

(3) Head towards “Crue-Azé” via the path furthest to the left. At the first Fork in the road, stay on the stony path to the left and continue downwards.

(4) At the second Fork in the road, take the middle path. Follow it to a pond. Turn right onto a track and walk alongside the pond on your right. You’ll come to a gate; open it and close it behind you to discover the Crue farm, which twice provided shelter for the resistance fighters in Blanot. Caution! There may be cows grazing on this site. Walk past the buildings.

(5) Turn left immediately to join the path a little further up. Follow it uphill to the right. Leave the meadow and continue uphill until you reach the route you took on the way there.

(4) Turn left and head for the Bois des Brosses crossroads.

(3) Head down the path on the left, signposted ‘No recreational off-road vehicles’.
Stay on this path without turning off until you reach Péluzot.

(6) You will then rejoin the^GR®76Aand follow it to the left until you reach the D146.

(7) Cross it to reach the Buisson du Fournil (“l’Beuchon du Fourniau” in local dialect). Follow the path, ignoring the offshoots on either side; the red and white markings lead you close to Notre-Dame des Roches.

(8) Leave the^GR®76Aand turn right to reach the Notre-Dame des Roches site, about a hundred metres away (viewpoint). Retrace your steps.

(8) Pass the “Notre-Dame des Roches” signpost again and ignore the junction with the Ban Sacré route, which heads down to the left. Head back up to the right.

At the signpost indicating the direction of “Buisson du Fournil”, follow the path to the left. The path splits into two just before entering the woods. Follow the right-hand path to the D146. Walk a few metres to the left until you reach the small road below the D146, which descends to the right after the bend.

(9) Follow this road to reach the centre of the village of Blanot (S/E).

Public toilets at the Blanot car park.

Food and accommodation available at La Thébaïde on 03 85 36 09 96.

Community bar ‘Le Coing’ on the village square (opens 13 June 2021).

Cheese shop open in the mornings from Tuesday to Saturday.

La Ferme du Mont-Rouge also offers a range of terrines and is open every morning from Thursday to Saturday and on Friday afternoons.

(S/E) This is the site where, following a tip-off from an infiltrated traitor, five villagers who were members of the Maquis were arrested on 23 January 1944 by the Gestapo and a number of German soldiers; they were interrogated, interned at Montluc prison, and subsequently executed or deported. None of them returned.
Their names, along with those of five others, appear on the war memorial erected to the left of the school.

(5) The first maquis group was made up of young people from Cluny who had refused to take part in the STO.
There were five of them. They were soon joined by others.
The resistance group set up camp during the night of 9–10 March 1943 at Georges Moreau’s farm.
The Cluny resistance fighters alerted those in Blanot to their arrival with the message: “We’ve put the young people in the maternity ward.”
They had become a group of “outlaws”, without ration cards and with no real means of subsistence.
The Resistance fighters from Cluny, Cormatin and Blanot therefore ensured the supply of provisions to this hidden camp
Some members of the Maquis cut broom so that it could be spun into fabric at the Merzé spinning mill.
Alerted by Mr Pautet, a gendarmerie adjutant from Cluny, to the passage of a ‘spy’ plane, the Maquis evacuated Crue sur La Musette before finding shelter in Mont-Cortevaix.

A second Maquis group, this one comprising fighters, was re-formed at the time of the landings in June 1944, led by Jean Louis Delorme, a police inspector who had resigned in 1942 and was soon put in charge of the sabotage unit. He was replaced in July by Lucien Doussot, a leader of men and an ambiguous figure, feared by the local farmers as well as by some members of the maquis, but in whom his men, for the most part, placed blind trust.
Better armed, thanks to airdrops, and better trained, this Maquis unit took part in the battles of Azé on 2 July and the defence of Cluny on 11 August of the same year.
Together with the resistance units from Montceau, Charolles and elsewhere, it worked to drive the enemy out of the region.
Several of the Crue resistance fighters subsequently joined the Cluny Commando, which would become the^4th Shock Battalion and help drive the occupying forces out of France.

Today, it still stands in Crue, despite the heroic deeds to which the last maquis group contributed, and the shadow cast by prisoners and others who were murdered.

(7) The “Buisson du Fournil” (“l’Beuchon du Fourniau” in the local dialect), ** also known as the “Embarcadère” because it served as the maquis’s vehicle depot, from which various operations were launched.
The amount of equipment stationed there increased along with the number of men; there were coaches, lorries and a German light vehicle fitted with a machine gun.
L’Embarcadère was also a place for night-time supplies and deliveries. The local Resistance members would bring provisions, which the maquisards would usually carry on their backs all the way up to Crue.”**

(8) Notre-Dame des Roches was erected in 1951 thanks to donations from the inhabitants of Blanot, Cortambert and Donzy-le-Pertuy – both believers and non-believers – in gratitude for the protection of the Virgin Mary during the bombing of Cluny.
It stands on the site where, in 1944, a camp was set up for between 11 and 15 members of the Resistance, seconded from the Crue resistance network to monitor the roads between the villages of Azé and Massilly, as well as the Grosne valley.''**

As well as the memorial sites visited during this walk, it is also possible to visit the Blanot caves in summer and during Heritage Days

Group visits are also available at other times of the year.

Not to be missed: a detour to Mont-Saint-Romain, the region’s highest peak, which offers a 360° view from the orientation table at its summit.