La Roche Percée in Cornas from Saint-Péray

Start from the Adrien Gilles car park, Rue René Cassin, below the Saint-Péray secondary school, along the Ruisseau de Saveyre.

(S/E) With your back to the car park, head right, towards the west, follow the red-and-white markings of^{the GR®42}and walk alongside the stream on your left. Take Rue Jean Baptiste Vivares then take the lane on the right, a few metres before the bridge. Walk straight up to the edge of the woods then continue to the left. Walk for about 150 m and, at the left-hand bend, look for a path on the right.

(1) Leave the red-and-white markings, follow the path into the woods and reach a track almost directly beneath a high-voltage power line.

(2) Turn left and continue on level ground. At the next junction, take a sharp right-hand bend and follow the red-and-white^GR® markings again^. Walk for about a hundred metres and turn left. Follow the main path, which winds in hairpin bends, then more or less follows the high-voltage power line, until you reach a four-way junction at the Rougeole signpost.

(3) Continue straight on, heading north, parallel to the high-voltage power line, initially on level ground then downhill. Caution: the lower part of the path can be slippery. Join a small tarmac road at Sabarote and follow it downhill for about 200 m until you reach the start of a path on the left.

(4) Turn left and follow the path through the vineyards. At each junction, keep to the right, pass under the high-voltage power line and cross the Ravin de Sauman ford.

(5) Immediately afterwards, turn left, ignore the paths on the right and follow the stream. On a very steep climb, the path veers left and enters an oak wood. At the first hairpin bend, make a round trip to the small waterfall then continue the climb. After passing beneath the house at Chanas, continue for about twenty metres and you will soon come to a path branching off to the left with a flight of steps (Chemin de Reynard).

(6) Take the steps and follow the path, marked in white and yellow, which goes round the vineyards on your left and leads to the hamlet of Peupliers and a tarmac road. Turn right and, at the next junction, right again, for about a hundred metres, until you reach the edge of the woods.

(7) Turn left onto the path leading into the pine forest. Return to the road and follow it to the left until the next junction.

(8) Turn left towards Les Arlettes (dead end). Pass the hamlet of Les Eygas, then the access road to the villas; on the descent, you’ll reach the corner of a vineyard.

(9) Take the path on the right between the vines and the embankment. Ignore the side paths and head first south, then east and finally north, arriving at the junction by the Coulet ruins. Ignore the path on the left, take the path downhill and you will soon come to a fork with a path on the left.

(10) Take this for a round trip. Pass under some old caravans and reach a hairpin bend.

(11) Continue along the path on the right, which is barely visible, to La Roche Percée. Take great care as the slope is steep and very slippery in bad weather.

(12) Then return along the same route to the fork after passing under the caravans again.

(10) Turn left onto the wide, steeply descending path that follows the bottom of the valley. At the bottom of the slope, you’ll reach a fork near the first houses of Cornas.

(13) Turn right onto a path through the vineyards; at the first junction, you will find stone-paved steps on the left. Descend into the stream, follow it to the left, then take the steps on the right to reach No. 20 (Chemin des Églantiers).

(14) Follow the path due south, continuing along Rue des Mimosas and then Passage des Lilas. Cross the stream, then take a flight of steps to arrive opposite No. 9 (Rue du Ruisseau). Continue left to the junction between the town hall and the church in Cornas.

(15) Turn right, heading due south onto Grande Rue, and follow it to the end. At the stop sign, continue to the right, still heading south (D86). On leaving Cornas, take the cycle and footpath and join the^second path on the right.

(16) Turn onto this path, which leads into the vineyards. At the huts, turn left. At the crossroads, turn right and, at the next junction, left. Then head straight on until you arrive opposite the sports hall and secondary school.

(17) Head across the road, slightly to the left, then take Allée du Collège and head towards the Adrien Gilles car park (S/E).