The Duzou balcony

Park at the town hall square.

(S/E) Take the Conques road (D901), turn right and continue to the junction with the D46 (Rue des Canals). Turn left and continue straight ahead for about 350 metres, passing the Régis car park and leaving the Maison de Santé on your right.

(1) At the Carrière bend, take the street on the right towards the Parcours de Santé. Ignore the Le Duzou housing estate and cross the stream of the same name. Follow the stream on your left before heading in the opposite direction, southwards, along the Parcours de Santé. Climb the slope of the valley in two hairpin bends and you will reach an intersection.

(2) Go straight ahead and continue climbing towards the ridge for about 1 km, ignoring a path on the right.

(3) Turn sharply right and join the Route de Cueye, which follows the^GR® 62 (white and red markings). Follow it for a few metres to the left before leaving the road descending to La Combe on the right to stay on the ridge path towards the east. Further on, ignore the Chemin des Vendangeurs on the right and walk along the vineyards. You will come to an intersection in a bend.

(4) Continue along the ridge path between the vineyards and you will come to a crossroads near a small road.

(5) Turn right to begin the descent towards the hamlet of Campelobre. Stay on the road that passes under Labro and arrive at a fork marked with a cross. Take the gravel path on the left which climbs, after a rather conspicuous water tank, to a hillock where the ruins of Beaucaire Castle (Belcayre) remain.

(6) Take the time to stroll around the authorised part of the site, which a local association is working to restore (see the tab During the hike...).

Yellow^PR® markings Between Dourdou and Créneau

Take the access path back to the reservoir and turn right. After a hairpin bend, veer right and enter a field via a chicane. Follow the fence along the edge of the field, go through another chicane and continue downhill to the right until you reach the D22.

End of markings

(7) Turn right onto the road that goes around the Beaucaire hill. You will come to a crossroads at Coustalou.

(8) Avoid taking the D22, which joins the Conques road, and instead follow the Chemin du Coustalou to the left. Turn left in front of the embankment supporting the D901 and use the bridge to pass under the road. At the Créneau-Dourdou confluence, follow the Route des Deux Eaux, cross the alluvial plain and pass the^first junction on the right towards the hamlet of Le Pont.

(9) At the next fork, turn right onto Allée des Réfugiés de Lorraine, which runs alongside leisure facilities with a picnic area and football changing rooms. Continue straight ahead to reach the Nauviale cemetery and its beautiful adjoining church.

(10) Cross the D22 and rejoin the^GR® 62, which crosses the Malrieu district before joining the D901. Proceed cautiously for a few metres to the left on this busy road.

(11) Leave it before a bend and take the small road on the right towards Bastizou. You will arrive at some houses at a pass.

(12) Leave Bastizou Basse on your left. Leave the^GR® 62, which branches off to the right, and head towards Ségonzac. At the fork, start the descent to the left and keep left again at the Olmet fork. Return to the D901 and walk a few metres along the hard shoulder on the left-hand side of the road.

(13) At the cross, take the small road that crosses the Plaine at an acute angle to the left. Once at the end, turn right and then cross the Duzou on the left. Via Place du Foirail and Rue des Lavandières, reach the town hall square (S/E).

After point (10) Picnic table at the Nauviale stadium.

The site of Beaucaire (Belcayre in Occitan - beautiful rock, beautiful fortress) offers a strategic position for monitoring the rivers below and the communication routes in the Dourdou and Créneau valleys. However, it is not known when the site was first occupied. The castle appears in texts from the 12th century and belonged successively to various powerful families of Rouergue (Panat, Armagnac, Séverac, Arpajon, etc.) before being gradually abandoned from the 18th century onwards.
More information at https://www.chateaudebeaucaire.fr/

Before (10) The Church of Saint-Martin in Nauviale has an extremely interesting and unique architectural feature. It is an inverted church, with the porch now on the east side. Above the porch, you can see the coat of arms of the Ducaulet family, former owners of Beaucaire Castle. Shaped like an ancient French shield, it features vertical stripes, possibly representing Catalonia, and a sun with eight wavy rays, symbolising light, wealth and abundance.
Saint-Martin is a Gothic church characterised by its ribbed vaults resting on pillars. Each ribbed vault is enhanced by a keystone on which various engravings can be seen: Occitan crosses, diamond crosses and trefoil crosses in the south transept. There is said to be an engraving in patois bearing the name of the mason who built the church. (Source: Nauviale website)