Béatrix route

It is best to park your vehicle in the car park of Château Louis XI, an imposing building located at the top of the village.

(S/E) When leaving the car park, turn right (south) and then right again (west) onto Rue des Remparts.

Red and white^GR® markings + yellow shell on a blue background.

As you turn right, notice the opening in the wall on your left. You can take a look inside, as the owner has given permission, and you will see the water wheel of a watermill restored by students from the vocational school. This will take you to the church square.

(1) Leave the church square heading west along Rue du Commandant Julhiet. At the crossroads, continue along this street opposite. As you pass, you will see Villa Beauséjour and the monument in honour of the painter Jongkind.

You are now on the^GR®65trail leading to Le Puy-en-Velay. At the fork after the cemetery, turn right and continue along this small road until you reach the D518a.

(2) Cross carefully. Traffic travels very fast here! Take Chemin de Fagot opposite. At the end of this road, turn right.

(3) A little further on, you will see the Chapelle Saint-Michel on your right, set back from the road. As a bonus, you will have a beautiful view of the Bièvre plain.

Then enter what may seem like a maze of small roads. Fortunately, almost all of them are marked with signs.

At the D518a, turn left onto Chemin de Berlorin, then right onto Chemin de la Buissonnière. The^GR® trail branches off to the left, so you will no longer have the trail markers to guide you.

No markings

Take the first small tarmac road on the left, then the first on the right (Chemin de Rafelière).
At La Poyat, turn right onto Chemin de la Fontaine and immediately turn left at the fork. Further on, turn left and then immediately right (Chemin de Chantemerle). We finally leave Balbins and its "labyrinth" behind and climb the hillside.

After a long left-hand bend, the path leads to the foot of the Sainte-Béatrix hill. The view alone makes it worth climbing the steep slope on the left.

(4) Go back down and continue on the left (sign: direction "Faramans").
When you reach a water catchment, continue straight ahead on the Chemin des Contrebandiers, wondering why smugglers would be here! Shortly afterwards, a sign invites you to visit the Croix de Pitié.

(5). Go there, it's your path. It's hard to believe that the cross is so old.
Continue on, going around the cemetery. Before reaching the south-west corner and the gate, you will see a small staircase on the right that leads to the road below, saving you an uninteresting detour. Take this road on the right heading north and continue to the crossroads.

(6) Turn right. Until now, we have been walking generally westwards. Now we begin the return journey and will be walking generally eastwards... Well done.

Walk along the glacial moraine, first on a small road, then on a path that leads to a fork, just before reaching the D41.

(7) Take the right fork. The path leads to the Col de Crozes.

(8) We will have to carefully cross the D518a again. Traffic moves fast here too, but we can use the "beans" to cross in two stages. Once you have crossed, walk along the block of houses to the right (south). Just before the last house, turn onto a small, well-hidden path that branches off to the left (northeast) and climbs up the hillside. After a 90° turn to the right, the slope becomes steeper and we come out into a field.

(9) Please note! Sometimes there is a reserved path (see map), sometimes the field is cultivated. If this is the case, please walk around the edge of the field on the right. Join a path that you must take to the left (east).

Walk past a farm on your left and continue straight ahead at the crossroads just after it. Ignore the small road coming from the left and, at the crossroads 150 metres further on, turn right to begin a very steep descent leading to Chemin de la Barre.

(10) Once there, take this path on the left (east). Ignore Chemin des Croix, which descends the hill on the left, and then turn left onto Chemin de la Riot. Ignore the streets or paths on the left and turn right onto Rue Jacques de Saint-Georges, which leads to the castle car park (S/E).

No drinking water sources listed.
The ideal picnic spot is at the Sainte-Béatrix cross. If it is windy, you can go back down the hill and take shelter behind the trees.

Views over the plains of the Bièvre and Liers rivers.
View of the mountains (Vercors, Belledonne, Chartreuse, etc.).
The watermill, the church of La Côte-Saint-André, the Villa Beauséjour.
In Balbins, the Saint-Michel chapel, the Croix de Pitié.
In La Côte-Saint-André, the Hector Berlioz Museum.