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Departure from the church in Robert-Espagne.
(S/E) Turn left onto Place de Verdun towards the town hall. Take a short detour behind the town hall to see the island in the middle of the Saulx, the dam and its hydroelectric turbine. Retrace your steps and continue to the right. Cross the main street and follow Rue des Marauds. At the end, turn right and then immediately left onto a path. Follow this path to Rue de Trois Fontaines.
(1) At Croix du Bois, take the path on the right to the old railway bridge.
(2) Pass under the bridge. Turn left, then climb up onto the old railway line and follow it to the right until you reach Route de Trois Fontaines. Turn right (west-northwest) onto a path.
(3) At a fork, take the left path to locate a 50-metre borehole that now provides access to the underground river, which is very popular with cavers. Continue and find theGR®14(red and white markings), which you follow west-northwest, ignoring a path on the left.
(4) At the next junction, leave theGR® and turn left heading due south. At the T-junction, turn right and rejoin theGR®14further on. Continue west, then turn immediately left (south-west). Cross a road and continue on theGR®, ignoring a path branching off to the right. At elevation 201, turn right and head due west for about 150m.
(5) Turn left at a right angle (due south), still on theGR®. The following section of the route is uneven with sinkholes, wells and other karstic caves that require particular attention, especially if you are accompanied by children. Also watch out for wire fencing in places, remnants of an American military camp. At the forest road, turn left and 80 metres further on, turn right. At the T-junction, turn right, cross one forest road and join another.
(6) At Route des Hattons, leave theGR® trail on your left and continue straight ahead. Turn onto the second path on the left. At the T-junction, rejoin theGR® trail and turn right. Turn immediately left and then right again. Ignore two trailheads, one on the left and one on the right, and at the next junction, turn left and continue for a few metres.
(7) Turn right and follow theGR® along the embankment of an old railway line known as the American camp. Leave the embankment after about 500 metres and turn left, passing under a high-voltage power line and veering to the right. This leads to a wider path which you follow to the left (south-west) to Trois-Fontaines-l'Abbaye.
(8) Turn right to visit the ruins of the abbey. Retrace your steps and follow the sentier des gouffres (chasm trail) which follows theGR®14Bsouth-east on a small tarmac road for just over 2 km, ignoring the paths branching off to the sides.
(9) At the edge of the woods, at an elevation of 180 metres, leave theGR® trail continuing south on the road and turn left eastwards onto the path marked with a yellow chevron. Stay on the edge for about 250 metres and turn onto the second path on the right to enter the woods (often sandy ground, with ferns, foxgloves, etc.).
Pass under the high-voltage power line again, cross a road and continue east-southeast. At a T-junction, turn left and you will come out onto the Route Forestière des Etocs. Follow this road to the left and pass the Source de Bruxenelle.
(11) Follow the yellow chevron markings and leave a forest road on your left. 400 metres further on, make a zigzag turn first left then right onto the Route de la Belle Epine, cut across a path and you will come to a T-junction.
(12) Turn right towards elevation 233.
(13) 300 metres further on, turn left, following the blue circular markings.
(14) About 500 metres further on, when the path branches off to the left, leave it as soon as it branches off to the left and continue straight ahead (path not shown on the map).
(15) About 300 metres further on, turn right and follow the path (not shown on the map) that runs alongside a spruce forest. Descend to the bottom of the valley, near the D3 road.
(16) Before the railway bridge, turn left and follow the old railway line to Robert-Espagne (blue round signpost) and, at Rue Longchamp, turn right.
(17) When you reach the roundabout, turn right and then immediately right again into Rue de Saint-Dizier to see the monument to those who were shot.
(18) Retrace your steps and continue straight ahead along Rue de Saint-Dizier, which continues as Rue de Gironde, to return to the starting point (S/E).
Visorando member
Moderate 
Easy 
