Cadoles and vineyards of Courteron along the ridge path

Park in the large car park at 6 Rue des Œillets, which is authorised for walkers on the "Route des Cadoles".
Rue des Œillets is located at the southern entrance to Courteron.

(S/E) Head up the dirt track running alongside the car park to the right. This track, which is suitable for vehicles, is bordered at the start by a dry stone wall.

(1) At the first sign (250 m), take the grassy path to the right. After 200 m, turn left until you reach the first cadole.
Retrace your steps to the dirt track and continue uphill, ignoring the path on the right, which will be the return route.
At the second sign (100 m), head down through a field of white stones to the second cadole, at the edge of the woods.

(2) Retrace your steps, veering slightly to the right towards the next signpost (25 m).
Take the white path again. After 500 m, ignore the sign (300 m). Stay on the path.

(3) At the three-way junction, turn left to follow the sign (45 m) and reach the fifth cadole known as "Le Pain de Sucre", then, via the forest path, cadole 5 bis.
Retrace your steps to the junction and cross the dry grassy area along the grassy track, heading east.
After 150 m, at the sign (100 m), continue along the forest path towards the south. Discover cadole 4, known as "La Merveille".
Return by veering slightly right towards the path.
Walk between the edge of the forest and the vineyards.
You will soon see the large communal cadole, number 6.

(4) Continue to follow the edge of the woods. After 150 m, head down to the right along the forest path to the track.
Turn left and start climbing again. At the sign (25 m), you’ll find cadole 7.

(5) At the junction, do not follow the sign for the “Route des Cadoles”. Follow the sign (100 m) leading to cadole 8 and then to the Fontaine de Champraux.
This is a good spot for a break or a picnic.
Continue climbing to reach a path and turn left.

(6) At the junction with the^GR®®2, turn right then immediately left to go round the Pousse-Loup field.
From these heights, the panoramic view over all the vineyards is exceptional.

(7) At the junction with the Chemin de Reine, turn left to head down through the vineyards.

(8) You will then rejoin the "Route des Cadoles" and the "Chemin des Crêtes", which turn left after about thirty metres.
Follow the sign (300 m).

(9) When you reach the foot of the vineyards, at the sign (150 m), turn right to enter the forest, leaving the "Chemin des Crêtes".
Cadole 11 is at the first junction.
Continue along the path as it descends into the forest. Pass cadole 12, which is on the left of the path.

(10) When you reach Val Frée, turn right onto the Chemin du Goulot. Follow the signs for “End of the Cadole Route – Return”.

(11) At the junction, turn right and continue for 800 m.

(12) Turn sharply left. After one kilometre, at the junction with the white track, turn left. Head downhill to the car park (S/E).

The walk follows most of a route created in the 1980s, with an alternative route taking the ridge path. Circling the Pousse-Loup field, it offers exceptional views of the vineyards overlooking the village and the surrounding area.

The Fontaine de Champraux, halfway along the route, is a lovely spot for a picnic.

A leaflet and information boards, produced by the Cadoles et Patrimoine association and the municipality of Courteron, make it easy to explore the area. In response to the question ‘What is a cadole?’, here is the description provided by Jean Daunay in the leaflet:
It is a hut built entirely of dry stone, without mortar or a timber frame, also known as a ‘loge’.
Examples of this type of construction are rare in our department, unlike in certain southern regions where they are found in abundance. The ‘drystone shelters’ of the south of France are particularly well known.
The cadoles of Courteron are former winegrowers’ huts, once situated amongst the vineyards, built by the winegrowers themselves using materials found on site. The stones dug from the ground were sorted; the commoner ones were used to build up the ‘muras’, the low walls marking the boundaries of each plot; the finest ones—those that were flat and wide, easy to stack one on top of the other—were used to construct the cadole.
These winegrowers’ huts are, almost without exception, round in shape, consisting of a vertical wall often reinforced on the outside by a pile of irregularly shaped materials. Their vault is simply a corbelled structure of beautifully arranged stones which, little by little, converge at the centre and at varying heights, forming an opening that serves as a chimney.
There is no wooden framework for this vault of delicately piled stones, which are well-balanced and slightly sloped to prevent rain from entering.
The entrance is always lowered, with a lintel made of a stone slightly larger than the others.
Testaments to a folk and anonymous architecture, reminders of the old winegrowers for whom they served as a refuge from the wind, rain, cold and scorching sun, where they could eat and rest, they have survived, it must be said, thanks to phylloxera. Indeed, they can be found, almost intact, in the wastelands of conifers that have gradually invaded the plots destroyed by the harmful insect and abandoned by ruined winegrowers.
They have withstood the test of time despite the vegetation that, at times, threatens them. We know them well now and we seek to protect them all because they bear witness to the toil and hardship of our grandparents, because they are all different, having been built by men who were by no means stonemasons and who constructed each one, in their own way, using stones from their own land.
All different, yet all alike.
Similar in the way they were built, which was the same for all of them, without mortar or framework, with their low doors facing east.
Different. One is so tall that it has been nicknamed ‘the sugar loaf’. Before entering this other ‘La Merveille’, one must cross a charming and welcoming little courtyard.
None of them can leave us indifferent. The “Oeillets” looks a bit rough and unpolished, much like “du Luc”. In contrast, “la Grosse Rave” has a rather bourgeois air about it. You must respect the entrance corridor to “Champraux devant” and, for a whole group of walkers, appreciate the comfort of the “Grande loge communale”.
Here in Courteron, a commune with ‘Champagne Appellation’ status, we invite you to rediscover, with us, the spirit of our former winegrowers, on a route that is half-motorised, half-on-foot. (But which can, to your advantage, be covered entirely on foot).
We are sure that such a discovery walk will delight you and that you will be sure to tell your friends about it.

The “Construction en pierre sèche” association continues to discover, catalogue and restore the Champagne-style cadoles in Courteron, as well as those in Gyé and Les Riceys:

Bibliography:
The Cadoles of the Barséquanais by Jean Daunay.
Courteron, a Champagne village through history by Rémi Huth.

(3) This dry grassland, consisting of short, herbaceous vegetation, is home to a rich variety of flora and fauna with Mediterranean affinities. It is home to many unique and remarkable species, including orchids and butterflies.

The Cadoles et Patrimoine association offers the following recommendations to walkers:
Cadoles are fragile structures.
To avoid accidents: do not move the stones, do not climb on them, and do not go inside.

UNESCO has identified 24 cadoles in the commune of Courteron. Some have collapsed. Whilst the Cadoles et Patrimoine association does not have the resources to maintain or even restore them all, the route allows you to discover thirteen of them:

1 Cadole des Œillets
2 Cadole du Luc
3 Cadole de Charmoy
4 La Merveille Cadole
5 Cadole Le Pain de Sucre
5a Small cadole of Comelle-au-Canard
6 Large communal cadole of Champraux de Devant
7 Cadole de la Grosse-Rave
8 Cadole of Champraux
9 Friquet Cadole
10 Cadole of Champ d’Oiseau
11 Cadole of the Bois de Rebras
12 Cadole du Val Frémelaine

For information on vine cultivation, see here