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Starting point and access: Créteil Pointe du Lac station.
- Metro – Line 8 (terminus).
Take Exit 1 onto Avenue François Mitterrand (opposite, after the turnstiles).
No signposting
(S) On leaving the metro, walk straight on for about thirty metres, then take the footbridge on the right. At the other end, turn left, walk past the statue of former President Mitterrand and head down the esplanade named after him. Cross a road and continue straight ahead, keeping a small canal (sometimes dry) on your right. At the end, first turn left then right to take a flight of steps leading down to the lakeside.
Yellow markings
(1) At the bottom, turn left and walk along the lake on your right, first on a compacted track and then, shortly afterwards, on a concrete path. Follow this path as it winds along the lakeshore. At a balustrade (viewpoint), turn left and continue along the winding concrete path.
You’ll come out onto a wide tarmac path; follow it to the right for a few dozen metres and, at the fork in the road, take a gravel path on the right. Walk alongside the swimming pool fence, then go round the wooden buildings of the sailing school on the right. Ignore a flight of steps leading down to the right towards a small beach. Continue northwards along a wide, compacted path, passing a playground on your left.
No signposting
(2) Take a very low wooden jetty on the right, which crosses a reed bed (take care to spot this start). Walk along the jetty to a railing overlooking the lake for a lovely view.
Retrace your steps, but not all the way back to the previous point: just before you reach it, turn right onto another, even lower jetty at the water’s edge. Head back up via thesecond wooden ramp on the left.
Yellow markings
Return to the compacted path and follow it to the right (north).
No markings
(3) Take a sturdy footbridge on the right which leads to a small island (which can serve as a stopping point). Walk briefly round the island (indicative route) and return via the footbridge.
Yellow markings
(3) Continue northwards along the lakeshore, noting the Créteil mosque on your left. You’ll reach the northern tip of the lake (paved area).
(4) Carry on roughly straight ahead, keeping the lake to your right. Pass under the spiral section of a footbridge and turn left to cross this footbridge (zigzag). This takes you over the D86.
As you leave the footbridge, follow the tarmac path straight ahead downhill at the foot of a tower, towards Paris-XII University. Note an information sign on the right about the neighbourhood you are passing through, ‘du chou et des épis’.
Cross the road at the pedestrian crossing and continue straight ahead along a tarmac path (follow the cycle signs). Pass between a low cylindrical tower block and the Charles Péguy school complex, which is also cylindrical.
Cross Boulevard Pablo Picasso and ride past the media/toy library on your right, followed by a cinema. Continue along a tarmac path running parallel to Rue Ambroise Paré.
Red and white + yellow markings
(5) Turn right onto the Mail des Mèches (not signposted here) and walk past the university buildings. At a Fork in the road, carry on straight ahead (do not turn right) and take a wide paved path.
After about fifty metres, climb the steps on the left leading to the University (UPEC) esplanade. Turn immediately right and take the footbridge spanning Avenue du Général de Gaulle (four-lane road).
Go back down a long ramp and, at the bottom, continue along a paved path (still the Mail des Mèches). Follow the main path east-north-east as it winds its way, ignoring the side paths. After a bar-restaurant, enter the tunnel leading to the metro (Créteil Université station).
On the other side, carry on straight ahead for about twenty metres and, at a fork in the road, turn right. Then turn left, leaving a map of the town on your right. At the traffic lights, turn left to cross an access ramp, then turn right again.
No signposting
(6) At the next junction, turn left into Rue Saint-Simon. At the T-junction, go left, cross Rue Ernest Mallet on your left and continue along Rue Saint-Simon. Cross two more streets on your left, then pass under the metro bridge.
Then cross Avenue du Général de Gaulle and carry on straight ahead, still on Rue Saint-Simon. Cross Rue Boule twice in succession on the left-hand side (it forms a circular pattern) and go under the motorway bridge.
Enter Maisons-Alfort, follow Rue de Mesly and walk alongside the housing estate called “Square Hector Berlioz”.
(7) At the end, turn right onto Rue Georges Médéric. At the traffic lights, cross Rue Victor Hugo (pedestrian crossing on the left) and continue straight ahead along Rue Georges Médéric. At the next junction, turn right onto Rue Carnot.
At the junction with Rue Georges Gaume, turn right into Parc des Hannetons towards the Ensemble Pompidou. Just after the entrance chicane, take the tarmac path on the right. Pass a playground on your left, then turn left to leave the park.
(8) At the exit, turn right and walk past the Alphonse Daudet School. Go round the roundabout on the left and follow Rue du 18 Juin 1940 to the left, towards Charentonneau.
After a few dozen metres, climb a flight of steps on the right towards the Cours des Juliottes. At the foot of a staircase leading to the right, turn left towards numbers 12 to 37 and pass a chicane.
Follow a path, passing a restaurant on your left, then go through a small covered shopping centre. On exiting, you’ll find the Maisons-Alfort Les Juliottes metro station (E) directly opposite.
To get back home:
- Metro – Line 8.
Local authority
Moderate 
Visorando Member
Difficult 
