From Les Saints to Paradis via the Mauvais Passage

Parking is available to the left of Mauperthuis Church, on the road to Saints. Please note that the entrance is not very visible. Do not take the^first left, but continue to the back of the church and make a half-turn to the left to enter.
If there are no spaces, continue along the Saints road. Just before the town hall, turn right to park near the Saints cemetery.

(S/E) From the car park, look for the church and head right towards its porch. Cross the church square and join Rue Montesquiou, turning left. At^{the first} crossroads, turn right and head towards the fountain (*). Continue to the end of the square, then along the extension and Rue Bricot (*). Follow it uphill to the right, then turn left onto Rue du Parc until you reach the pylon/antenna. Turn left onto Rue du Pressoir, then look to your left at^{the second} crossroads for the path that goes downhill and becomes grassy after a house.

(1) Go down the path on the left, then turn right in front of the old farm and continue along the wall on your left, along the road and then the grassy path that descends until you reach the Moulin d'Épaillard near Aubetin.

(2) After the mill (*), take Rue du Saussoy opposite (slightly to the right), which goes up to the right. After the hedges, take the path on the left in front of the first houses. Continue straight ahead (slightly to the left) until you reach the hamlet of Esse. Turn left onto Rue des Coteaux and continue for a few metres until you reach the crossroads with Rue d'Esse (*).

(3) Turn right and follow it until you cross the Ru de l'Oursine. A few hundred metres further on, on the uphill stretch, take the path on the left, almost under the high-voltage power line. At the end, take the small street on the left, then the stony path on the right. At the end, turn left to reach the junction with Rue des Grès. Take the path at a 30° angle to the right, between the two streets. Follow it to the right near the electricity pole. At the end, go down Rue du Glacis on the left. Leave it when it turns left just before the end of the descent.

(4) Continue straight ahead, then turn right, again in front of an electricity pole, still following the edge of the woods. At^{the first} crossroads, turn left onto the path that descends, still following the edge of the woods. It will turn right to enter the woods. Shortly afterwards, take the path that descends to the left towards Aubetin. Be careful on the unstable log steps. Cross the footbridge, then follow the river downstream to the right. You will arrive at the Montcet wash house, passing picnic tables on the way.

(5) Take the road on the right, cross the river, then take the first left: Chemin des Forrières. Change to the route: the section along the Aubetin has become a protected area. Continue along Chemin des Forrières until you reach the road, next to the Château de la Roseraie du Poncet. Turn left and cross the Aubetin.

(6) Turn left onto the^GR®®14along the Aubetin to see its waterfall. However, the^GR®®14is often very muddy in the middle of this section.
To avoid the mud at the end of the clearing on the right:
- the Aubetin arrives on the left, followed by a clearing on the left,
- take the^first path on the right that goes up into the woods to reach the path parallel to the river, then turn left,
- in the woods, go over the top and see the beautiful La Folie Bectard house on the left.
- Pass the^first path that descends to the left, which is too steep in the lower section.
Reach the next one, about 250 m after the house.

(7) Descend to the left, find the path that runs alongside the Aubetin and take it to the right. Take the^first path on the left to reach the river and follow it to the right. At the end, at the entrance to the clearing, take the^GR®®14again to the wash house already seen at the edge of Rue du Montcet.

(5) Follow the^GR®®14to the right on the small road that climbs between two beautiful stone houses, then turn left onto the^first path after the houses. Follow it along Rue de la Vallée to cross Le Champ Roger, before turning left towards Saint-Augustin, Rue du Moulinet and see the mill on the Aubetin.

(8) Turn around at the bridge. Continue along the previous street for a few metres towards Sainte-Aubierge. Take the first path on the right that climbs with houses on the right. At the top, the path turns left. Follow it, then continue straight ahead at the next crossroads. Just before a right-hand bend, the^GR®® 14 arrives from the right and continues opposite.

(9) Do not use the^GR®, but turn left to descend. At the bottom, turn right onto Rue de Sainte-Aubierge and pass the Moulin des Îles on your left. You may want to turn left and walk back to the bridge to see the mill. Continue along Rue de Sainte-Aubierge to arrive in front of the chapel, spring and wash house of Ste Aubierge (*).

(10) Take the small road and arrive on the D 402. On the left is the Moulin de Mistou (*), the^second part of the Mauperthuis castle estate (*). However, there is too much traffic to go and see it.

(11) Cross and turn right, then 30° left onto the small road leading to the hamlet of Paradis, which gave part of its name to the walk, marked^PR®® Yellow. At the entrance to the hamlet, take the^first path on the left and follow it as it descends to the right towards the Aubetin to cross it and arrive at the Moulin de Laval (*).

(12) Follow Rue de Laval and the wall of the Domaine des Coteaux (*) to^{the first} crossroads. Turn right, then left to reach and follow the river. You will come to a small road. Turn right to cross the Aubetin and reach the gate of Moulin de Maingérard.

(13) Take the small road on the left opposite the mill. It runs alongside the Aubetin, then climbs gently to the right to cross the village of Mémillon. On leaving the village, after the wash house, you will come to a marked path that branches off to the left.

(14) Follow the^PR®® on the left until you reach the hamlet of Glatigny and the road perpendicular to the path. Turn left, then left again at the sign saying "except for residents and services," and continue downhill towards the Aubetin. Pass in front of the Planche Oudin and arrive at the footbridge over the Aubetin.

(15) It looks like private property, but the passage is public. Cross the mill area and go back up to the crossroads. Turn right towards the water treatment plant, then continue up Rue du Clos de la Cure to arrive below the Church of Saints (*). Just before the church, turn left onto Rue de l'Église to reach its gate. Continue to Grande Rue and turn right to pass above the church. Continue to the wash house and the crossroads with Rue Gerbaude on the left.

(16) Take the path on the left. At^{the first} crossroads, turn left onto Chemin de la Garenne. At the end, pass under a house to reach Grande Rue, with the town hall on your right. Cross over and turn right in front of the town hall, then immediately left. Pass in front of a school, then the sports facilities, and arrive in front of the Saints cemetery and a^first barrier with a pedestrian crossing.

(17) Continue and cut across the Allée des Pommiers behind the^second barrier to take the Impasse du Clos de la Garenne, which is almost in line with it.
Change to the route: the Étang de la Barre path, although public, has been absorbed by the neighbouring field. Continue straight ahead to the next crossroads and turn slightly right onto Rue de la Tour. Arrive at^{the first} crossroads in Mauperthuis and make a U-turn to return to the car park via Rue de Bel Air. (S/E).

You can shorten the route by 4 km at point (5). The Montcet wash house is on the way there and back. It is therefore possible to take a 4 km shortcut, which is particularly useful in wet weather when this area is muddy.

The route frequently deviates from the markings, so do not always rely on them.

Allow 6 hours including a lunch break.

(S/E) Mauperthuis: the name is a distortion of Malperthuis, which means bad passage. There are two reasons for this:
- firstly, because it was dangerous in the past, as the steep descent to the river was regularly subject to mudslides and subsidence.
- on the other hand, because the possibility of crossing the Aubetin made it a passageway on the invasion route, which meant that the village was regularly occupied and pillaged.
A perthuis is a passage in the broad sense: a door, a water passage for a mill, a strait between an island and the mainland, a mountain pass.
The village is very old due to its position as a crossing point, but its current history began in the 18th century when it became the property of the Montesquiou d'Artagnan family, cousins of the famous musketeer. They called on the architect of utopias, Nicolas Ledoux, known for the Salines d'Arc et Senans. When Ledoux was called to Paris by the king, the work was continued and completed by Brongniart, who designed the Paris Stock Exchange.
- After crossing Rue Montesquiou: the fountain. Dating from 1764, it was part of a group of several buildings commissioned by Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fezensac. There was also the château, the dovecote, the wash house and the church, which was rebuilt at that time. It was also on this occasion that the street leading up from L'Aubetin was paved, finally making it safe.
Rue Bricot, after the fountain. On the other side of the wall (odd numbers) was the castle and its outbuildings, as well as the large plot of land that sloped down towards L'Aubetin. The castle was destroyed by revolutionaries in 1803, shortly after it was built.

(2) The Moulin d'Épaillard, on the south-western edge of the Château de Mauperthuis estate, of which it was probably part.

(3) We are in the hamlet of Esse, which is now part of St Augustin. The main street is therefore called Rue d'Esse, used in the full name of the hike: Des Saints au Paradis par le Mauvais Passage et la rue d'Esse (From Saints to Paradise via the Bad Passage and Rue d'Esse).

(5) Lavoir du Moncet, then, arriving on the road before point (6), the La Roseraie du Poncet manor house.

(6) The Aubetin waterfall.

(8) Moulin du Moulinet mill.

(9) Moulin des Îles

(10) The Sainte Aubierge fountain dates back to the 7th century. Legend has it that, on this ancient Druidic place of worship, Sainte-Aubierge,^3rd abbess of the nearby Faremoutiers Abbey, struck the ground with her crozier and caused a spring that had dried up during a year of drought to gush forth.
The water from the fountain feeds the wash house below the spring.
Not far from the fountain and wash house, the chapel dedicated to Sainte-Aubierge houses the saint's reliquary.
The site is the destination of a pilgrimage every Easter Monday, as the spring is said to have miraculous powers against kidney ailments.

(11) The Moulin de Mistou. This was the^second part of the Montesquiou estate, along the Aubetin, below the castle. This is where Ledoux's factories were located, with the guard tower and the pyramid, the starting point of a secret passage that probably led to the castle.
- Paradis hamlet, which justifies the name of the hike. Municipality of Mauperthuis.
- At the bottom of the descent, just before crossing the Aubetin, the Brongniart tower, the only remnant of the original embellishments, built in medieval style. Until the early 20th century, this tower had a drawbridge that allowed access over the path to the other part of the park, the Moulin de Mistou, which extended to the castle of Mauperthuis. This drawbridge can be seen on old postcards. Today, it is possible to guess its location by observing the architecture of the tower and the wall opposite it.

(12) Les Coteaux. We arrive at the^third part of the Montesquiou estate, which extends from the Moulin de Mistou: the Château des Coteaux, the Laval mill and the factories.
The Château des Coteaux, an outbuilding and hunting lodge of the Château de Mauperthuis, was built and landscaped at the end of the 18th century by Brongniart and Ledoux. Its park, covering around 19 hectares, is crossed by the Aubetin river. It was once decorated with statues, pavilions, follies and fountains. These features have now disappeared. It also had a chapel. Almost completely destroyed in the 2000s, its English Gothic-style façade can still be seen.
However, the outbuildings still exist. You can see the paper dryer, located along the Laval road opposite the mill of the same name. The château, outbuildings and park are now two separate private properties and are not open to visitors.
Théophile Gautier, whose uncle was the steward of the castle, came to play in the park and swim at the Laval ford as a child. He describes the property as it was in the 19th century in Mademoiselle de Maupin. For Capitaine Fracasse, he used the Mauperthuis estate as a backdrop, notably its outbuildings, its cottage, the pyramid, the grotto, its dovecote, and its fountains and drinking trough.
Théophile initially wanted to be a painter, and one of his paintings depicts a Roman temple, part of the château, in the style of Nicolas Ledoux. The estate was renowned for its remarkable park and château.

(13) Maingérard Mill.

(15) Footbridge and Planche Oudin Mill.
Saint-Martin de Saints Church. After Saint-Augustin and Sainte-Aubierge, this is the^third village that gives the walk its name.

(16) Saints wash house.