Country:
City:
The route starts from Villard-Saint-Christophe, located near the Route Napoléon, 35 km south of Grenoble.
Our starting point is at the “Place de la Bascule”, which is in the centre of the village, at the first junction with several streets when coming from Pierre-Châtel.
We can park the car in this square, in the Town Hall square 50 metres further down, or in the car park of the community hall, which is reached by continuing to the right for about a hundred metres (towards “Le Chalet”).
(S/E) From the square, take the “Route de l’Église” which climbs to the left. Once at the church, continue uphill then turn left; you’ll reach a road and find a yellow sign pointing to the right towards “La Croix de Gouret”, which is your first destination.
(1) We continue along this path, passing gardens, and join a tarmac road; 400 metres after the previous signpost, we arrive at “Près la Combe”.
(2) A sign directs us to the right. We will return to this spot on the way down at the end of the walk.
Head in the direction indicated and follow the path. Shortly after crossing the stream “Le Merdaret”, it turns into a footpath and we come to a new sign directing us to the right. The path, marked in yellow, slopes gently and runs through the forest almost all the way to the Croix de Gouret.
This path is very pleasant in summer; the only difficulty is halfway along, where it joins a forest track – you must turn left here for about twenty metres before rejoining the path on the right.
(3) Once at the Cross, continue climbing to the path linking Saint-Honoré 1500 and the Alpe du Grand Serre (yellow sign).
(4) Take the path on the left towards “Le Grand Serre”. The view of the lakes and the Vercors is magnificent and will remain with us for the rest of the journey. Further along the path, you’ll spot a sheepfold, the “Cabane des Cloutons”. This is our next stop.
(5) Once we reach the hut, we need to head left onto a path along the mountainside, but this is often inaccessible during the summer grazing season and it may be necessary to go round the top of the small sheep pen located above the hut.
About 200 metres past the hut, we spot a white cross which we head towards; this is the “Croix de Côte Rotte”, a rather beautiful cross set on a serpentine base. These stones were quarried from a site just over a kilometre away, which was worked in the late 19th century during the construction of Notre-Dame de Fourvière Cathedral in Lyon.
(6) After admiring the view, we begin the descent into the sheep pasture, roughly following the ridge line. There is no path and the descent is quite steep but not dangerous. We can use the single roof in the valley, lying in line with the ridge, as a landmark; it looks like a pyramid when viewed from the summit.
After passing through a fence that is easy to cross, we enter the heifer pasture and continue our descent. After a 300-metre descent from the Cross, we approach the forest (a few tree tops are visible) and can spot a shepherd’s hut to the north on our right, situated beyond a valley.
(7) We change direction and head towards this hut, following a path trodden by the heifers. We continue to the sheepfold, which we reach after crossing the valley that forms the boundary between Villard-Saint-Christophe and Cholonge.
About twenty metres past the sheepfold, we come back onto a good path and the 3.5 km return journey presents no further difficulties.
(8) After a few hairpin bends, we reach the valley again and cross it to return to Villard-Saint-Christophe.
We then simply follow the path to reach, at “Pré la Combe” (2), the route we took on the way up and return to the car park where we started (S/E).
Visorando Member
Easy 
