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Cals (hamlet of Lacombe) - Communal Market Hall car park.
(S/E) From the car park, return to the road and head for the Place des Jeux by taking the narrow passage on the left, the Ruelle des Jardins. Turn right, then left into the cul-de-sac Ruelle du Réservoir. Walk up to the end of the tarmac road.
(1) Go around the underground water reservoir and then walk along the edge of a field with the owner's permission. At the end of the plot, look for a passage on the left in an old path closed off by vegetation (wooden protective barrier halfway up: watch your head!). Cross a grove and come out onto a track.
(2) Follow it to the right towards a mobile phone relay station and a water tower protected by a fence. Stay on this track for a while, which leads to the Col du Fangas Haut, closed to vehicle traffic. You will come to a fork.
(3) Continue straight ahead. You will arrive at the "la Botte" crossroads (signpost indicating a track open to horse riders). Turn left onto the track and you will arrive at an intersection.
(4) Turn right onto the path entering the Loubatière National Forest. Pass a track junction at Lacal and continue downhill towards the Linon valley. Join the abandoned Laprade road.
(5) Turn right and you will come out onto the D253. Follow it straight ahead, passing close to the Maison Forestière de la Loubatière, the home of the ONF forest ranger for the area. Ignore a fork to the left and, a few metres further on, look for a path starting on the right.
(6) Take this "old miners' path" which climbs up through Travers de la Fonde, offering a shortcut compared to the road. Return to the road at the entrance to Cals Bas.
(7) Cross the lower part of the hamlet, then turn right onto Rue des Lavandières and walk up to Place de l'Aubépine (remarkable tree over 300 years old - fountain nearby). Continue right along Route de la Loubatière and return to the car park (S/E).
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