Country:
City:
This hike starts at a place called Le Collet de Doizieux, located in the Loire department, not far from the village of Pélussin. Park in the dirt car park below the restaurant at Le Collet de Doizieux. This car park is on the right as you drive up from Pélussin, before reaching the bend in the road that passes in front of the restaurant.
(S/E) To start the walk correctly, leave the car park heading towards the restaurant and follow the tarmac road for a few metres. In the middle of the hairpin bend just before reaching the restaurant, turn right into the woods and up a path that is not very visible at first, following the crest of the ridge.
Continue climbing steadily through the woods until you find a path that becomes clearer. Follow this straight ahead, ignoring a fork to the left. You’ll reach a junction after descending a few metres from the summit, where you’ll find a Pilat Park hiking signpost.
(1) Turn right at this junction and walk for about 50 metres to reach a viewpoint overlooking Chirat Rochat and the Rhône Valley as far as the Alps.
Retrace your steps back to the junction.
(1) This time, turn right and head downhill. Continue until you reach a junction with another path. Turn left and keep going straight on, slightly downhill, until you reach another junction shaped like an inverted fork. Turn right, ignoring the path heading almost straight ahead. Continue straight on until you reach a tarmac section, then a junction with a hiking signpost.
(2) Turn left. Continue along this path until you reach the hamlet of Le Châtelard and another hiking signpost.
(3) Turn left onto the tarmac road, then pass between the houses in the hamlet. Continue straight on along the tarmac section, ignoring a road branching off to the left that heads uphill. At the next junction, go straight on along the dirt track opposite, ignoring the road continuing to the left, and carry on straight ahead.
Stay on the main track, ignoring the turnings to the right and left, for a distance of about 3 km. You will then come to another hiking signpost at a junction.
(4) Continue straight on until you reach a tarmac road where there is another hiking signpost and a small cross.
(5) Cross the road and take the dirt track opposite, heading downhill. You will reach a junction where several paths meet, marked by another signpost; continue straight on downhill, ignoring the two paths branching off to the left. You will very quickly (after about 40 metres) reach another junction, also marked by a hiking signpost.
(6) Turn left here, onto a narrow path leading downhill. Reach the bottom of the valley, fords the stream and head back up the path opposite. Reach a road and turn left to cross the hamlet of Les Hermeaux.
(7) Take the dirt track that climbs up between the road continuing straight ahead and the one branching off to the right. Continue straight up the hill, ignoring the paths branching off to the left and right. Reach the hamlet of La Bonnetanche and a tarmac road.
(8) Take this road on the left and walk for about 40 metres, then follow the dirt track uphill to the right. When you reach a large stone house, turn right at the corner and continue along the buildings.
Note: when turning at the corner of the house, you may feel as though you are entering private property, but this is not the case and you may proceed in this direction without any problem.
Continue straight on until you reach a crossroads, where you should turn left. Head uphill, keeping straight on at each junction. You will reach the small pass of Doizieux car park (S/E).
Visorando Member
Easy 
Difficult 
