Courquetaine - Ozouer le Voulgis via Retal

Parking: spaces at the start of Rue du Bue. This is the street on the right as you leave Courquetaine towards Villepatour.
It is also possible to park opposite the town hall, at 1 Rue de Villepatour, but the car park is often full.

(S/E) Take Rue du Bue towards the countryside until you reach the tarmac path known as Chemin des Blatiers (^PR® signposted).

(1) Follow the^PR® markings to the right onto the Chemin des Blatiers. Continue straight on past the Montgazon farm, until you cross over the railway line and reach the crossroads 100 m further on.

(2) Take the^PR® to the right, then head down towards the ford. It is best to use the footbridge to cross the Marsange and climb up the opposite side towards Retal, to reach the D32 at the T-junction. Turn right onto it and pass a wash house (*) on the right-hand side. You will then reach a crossroads.

(3) Turn right into Rue des Données. Follow it to the end, then follow the^PR® which continues it to the left. Continue through the woods to the crossroads at the start of the descent, after a right-hand bend. Caution!! Do not go down to the river: the path is blocked.

(4) Head back up the hairpin bend to the left, leave the woods, then follow the edge. At the junction with the woods opposite, follow the^PR® which descends to the right. Continue to the bridge over the Marsange.

(5) Cross the bridge and head up the opposite slope until you reach the railway line, then cross it _carefully_. Proceed to the junction just beyond, where a signposted path branches off to the left.

(6) Turn left onto the path that runs alongside the railway line until you see the Marsange coming from the left, passing under the railway line. Shortly afterwards, use the footbridge to cross the river, then follow it on your right until you reach the D48 next to the houses in the hamlet of La Cantine.

(7) Follow the road to the right. After about 150 m, at the end of a slight bend to the right, leave the road and take a path on the left. Cross the Yerres via a footbridge (note the confluence with the Marsange on the right). Follow the river on your right.

(8) Take a footbridge to cross the river (picnic table nearby). Join Rue du Clos Pottier and follow it to the end, then turn left onto Rue Jude de Cresne. Follow it until you find Rue de la Fontaine on the left; take this for a few metres and you will find the magnificent wash house (*) of Ozouer le Voulgis on the left.

(9) Return to Rue Jude de Cresne, then after 50 m, turn right onto Rue Fournier. Diagonally cross Place de la Mairie, then turn left onto Rue de la Mairie, walking along the foot of a high wall. At the end of this wall, turn right to reach the square in front of the church of Ozouer le Voulgis (*).

(10) Set off again with your back to the church to reach Rue de la République, which you should take on the left. Proceed to the junction with Rue des Etards on the right and Rue Jude de Cresne on the left. You will see the castle on the right-hand corner (*).

(11) Continue straight ahead along Rue de Guignes. At the fork, follow Rue de Melun to the right. Keep going straight on when it becomes a track and you’ll reach the D319. Turn right to walk alongside the road. As you approach the track on the left, make use of the speed bump and the visibility it provides to cross carefully and reach the crossroads.

(12) Turn left onto Chemin du Bas des Vignes before the go-kart route. When you reach the sewage treatment plant with the ford on your left, follow the path that climbs to the right. Pass the wash house and continue to the top, where the path runs parallel to the D319.

(13) Continue slightly to the left onto the Grand Rue des Etards. Pass the large farm, then turn right onto Rue de Solers. As you leave the hamlet, it becomes a track to follow until the next crossroads.

(14) Turn right. Cross the D319 carefully and follow the small road opposite to the Malassise farm.

(15) Continue to Villepayen (three houses) and turn left. About 250 m further on, go straight ahead along the small road to avoid traffic. Cross the junction with a small road marked^PR® on the left, and continue straight ahead until you reach a row of trees on the left just before the junction at the Montgazon farm.

(16) Turn left onto the barely visible path, with the row of trees on your right. You will reach the^first houses of Courquetaine. Join Rue d’Ozouer-le-Voulgis and follow it to the right until you reach Courquetaine church.

(17) Just after the church, turn right into Rue de Villepatouret and walk past the town hall. Walk past the castle (*) and continue straight ahead. At the junction, turn right onto Rue de Bue and you will immediately reach the car park (S/E).

The symbols (*) in the description refer to the section ‘During the hike or nearby’.

Markings:
- Long-Distance Hiking Trail: GR®, national level: White/Red.
- Regional Long-Distance Hiking Trail: GRP®, often a long circular regional trail: generally Yellow/Red,
- Walking and Hiking Trails (PR®), generally local circular loops lasting a few hours: a single yellow mark (the original colour), or blue, green, orange, etc. Note: as these trails are increasing in number, a PR® may have recently changed colour.

Warning: some sections are muddy in wet weather.

Shortly before (3) Retal Farm, formerly the fiefdom of Relly or Rethal, dates back to the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, this seigneurial manor was remodelled and converted into a farm. Retal was therefore probably spelled Rehthal in the past, meaning ‘valley of the deer’ in German.

(9) This wash house was built around 1848. It was here that the washerwomen would come to rinse and beat their laundry, as the washing itself was done at home. Today, this wash house is maintained by an association which decorates it and organises events there.

(10) In the past, the village was called ‘Oratoire du Chevalier du Voulgis’. Ozouer is a corruption of ‘oratoire’, which meant church or chapel. The village’s religious origins were confirmed by the construction of the Priory of the Celestines in 1406, a branch of the Celestine Convent of Marcoussis.
The imposing Church of Saint-Martin is a Renaissance-style building constructed around 1530–1540 on the site of the former oratory founded in 1206. Its bell tower rises more than 30 metres above the Briard countryside. It was surrounded by the seigneurial manor house and connected to the priory, which had become the Celestine farm.
This farm was owned by Jacques-Louis David, the painter of The Tennis Court Oath, The Assassination of Marat and The Coronation of Napoleon.

(11) Ozouer Castle. It is marked as ‘Hôpital’ on some maps, but this name appears to derive from the former estate of the Order of Hospitallers, which existed in Ozouer and had taken over the Templars’ estates following their condemnation.

(16) Château de Courquetaine. Alphonse Hardon, owner of the Château de Courquetaine, was mayor of the commune from 1892. His daughter Annie married Marshal Pétain in 1920.
Courquetaine Castle served as a filming location for Jean Delannoy’s film *Maigret and the Saint-Fiacre Affair*, released in 1959 with Jean Gabin in the lead role. In the film, it was the residence of the Countess of Saint-Fiacre, a fictional village normally situated in the department of Allier.