Charenton - Saint-Bonnet-Tronçais

Departure from Charenton-du-Cher Cemetery.

(S) Cross the municipal road and take the Chemin de la Noirie. Leave the path starting at right angles on your right and continue to the next junction, where you will find the^GR®®303Amarked in red and white. Turn right and continue along this road until you reach the crossroads leading to La Besace.

(1) At the three-way junction, take the stone path on your right until you reach the Crochet farm. Then follow the tarmac road on the right. Stay on the^GR®® and continue until you reach a four-way junction.

(2) Leave the^GR®® here, which branches off to the left, and continue straight ahead to quickly reach the D28 crossroads. Here, rejoin the^GR®®, follow it and continue along the shaded path on the left that descends. Join a tarmac road.

(3) Take this road opposite and arrive at the hamlet of Les Riots. Turn right onto the Chemin de l'Avignon. Continue south and join a new tarmac road.

(4) Cross the road, leave the^GR®® and its signposts, and take the grassy path opposite. Continue to the Point du Jour crossroads.

(5) Turn left and continue to the D39. Cross the road and follow the sign for "itinérance mushing". You will rejoin the^GR®®303A.

(6) Turn onto it opposite, cross the wooded area and reach the Rond du Vieux Morat crossroads, where the^GR®®303and 303A meet. Turn right onto the^GR®®303and join the bridge over the Sologne.

(7) Turn left and cross the bridge. At the statue of Colbert, turn right. At the roundabout, turn left and follow the signs for the beach and campsite. Take the François Terrasson path to reach the car park at the Saint-Bonnet pond (E).

Charenton-du-Cher
- Drinking water: Cemetery
- Public toilets: Town hall square
Shops: Town centre

Saint-Bonnet pond
- Public toilets and drinking water

Ainay le Château is a medieval town founded in the^12th century and protected by ramparts with 24 towers. Four gates allowed access to the town. All were equipped with drawbridges and portcullis. The clock gate is the only one that has been perfectly preserved. The Saint-Étienne church, which overlooks the banks of the Sologne, was built in the^11th century and was later transformed in^{the 16th} and^17th centuries.
The Saint-Roch Chapel was built in 1641 to ward off the plague epidemic of 1621.

The Tronçais Forest is the largest oak forest in Europe. It also has beech and hornbeam trees, which force the oak trees to grow taller in search of light.
Colbert, minister to King Louis XIV, keen to provide the Kingdom of France with a powerful navy, decided to plant more than a million hectares of trees, whose trunks and branches would provide the shipbuilding industry with high-quality raw materials.

The Saint-Bonnet lake covers 45 hectares and is home to a leisure centre.