Arthé circular

Start: Start from Place des Frères Genets car park.

(S/E) Enter the town centre via the small street to the right of the store with large windows. Follow Rue Paul Bert, go straight on up Rue de la Poterne to Rue Lucile Cormier. Turn right into this street, then immediately left into Rue Neuve.
Turn left into Rue Paul Defrance.

(1) Turn right into Rue des Montagnes. Leave the library on your left, and the secondary school on your right. Enter a side street (Avenue de Kusel).

(2) Cross the road to take the path opposite, signposted Chemin d'Arthé. This lane quickly becomes a road. Go past the right and left turn-offs to reach a tarmac road. Turn left for about 100m.

(3) Go down the track on the right, into the undergrowth. Forget all the side paths. A line of pollarded trees (also known as 'trognes', 'écornues'...) will guide you to the Maurepas ford. After the ford, climb back up along the fields.

(4) When you reach the road, go straight ahead and turn right at the bend. Cross the road and continue straight ahead on the nice ridge path.

(5) Pass the main entrance to Château d'Arthé. Continue straight ahead on the tarmac road through Les Bertheaux and then Les Laurents.

(6) At the crossroads leading to Bergenne, go straight on. Reach the D48 crossroads.

(7) Turn right and immediately left onto the dirt track. Pass a market garden and continue straight ahead. Reach the hamlet of Les Guerriers. The path becomes tarmac. Keep going and you'll find the start of a path on the right.
(8) Take this to join the D48 crossroads.

(9) Cross the road carefully to continue along the dirt track opposite. Continue until you reach the crossroads and turn left.

(10) Leave the driveway on your left and turn slightly right. Reach a road shortly after the transmission tower.

(11) Cross the road and continue straight ahead. Keep to this main path, leaving all the entrances on the right leading into the groups of houses.

(12) At the tarmac, continue with the gymnasium on your left. At the cross street, turn left. Continue along this main road, which slaloms between the embankments (beware, however, that this road is used by cars). At the car park, continue downhill past the church.

(1) Carefully cross the Rue du Marché and continue downhill for a few metres. Turn right to go up towards the church.
At the church entrance stairs, turn left again. At the end, turn right into a small square. Pass through the breach in the old ramparts and down the flight of stairs which, after offering a fine view of Place Pierre Larousse, lead to this space. Go past Rue Verger, Rue Paul Bert and then Rue Colette on the left. At the crossroads with Rue Emile Genet, turn left into the car park (S/E).

The route through the Bois des Quatre Francs (woods) goes through some wet areas. This sunken path is typical of the Puisaye region. Lovely trees can be seen along the way.
This trail is marked in accordance with the Communauté de Communes de Puisaye-Forterre signposting charter, and bears the N°76 number on a yellow background. It was created by the association 'À chacun son chemin en Puisaye-Forte' in May 2021.
If you have any concerns, please fill in this questionnaire (1 to 2 minutes only).
Be careful when crossing roads.
Despite the mentioned signposts, you should at least have this description and the accompanying IGN map or the visorando application.

At the entrance to the hamlet of Les Guerriers, observe the gable end of a barn with a stone covering: in some places, this covering exposes the masonry materials, in this case ironstone, flint and limestone.

On your return to Toucy, before (1), don't hesitate to enter the library and visit the area dedicated to Pierre Larousse.

100m below the car park, you'll find Saint-Pierre Church, built of ironstone in the 16th century, on the site of the ancient seigniorial fortifications.

Toucy, a popular Puisaye village for tourists, is definitely worth a morning's exploration:

• Place de la République, with its statue of local hero Pierre Larousse.
• Château de la Motte Miton with its round towers and dovecote.
• The lake and its promenade.