Country:
District:
Departure is from the small square in front of Le Bleymard church.
(S) When your back is to the church door, take the Rue Couderc in front of you, passing to the right of the town hall (you pass between the town hall and a house). Just after this house (no. 17), turn right into a small street that climbs up and bends to the left, before joining a road that climbs up (level with a bench on your left). This road bends sharply to the right. Continue for a little over a hundred metres, leaving the small street on your right which leads down to the old people's home. After a bend to the left, you'll find a path on your right at the foot of a cross and a bench. Take this path, which overlooks the retirement home and the last houses in the village. Leave a path on your left. Your path turns right, then left, with a path joining it on the right. You continue to climb towards a small wood on your left. You come to a track on your left, which you take, ignoring a path on your right. Continue on to the Col Santel (1,195m).
(1) Junction of 5 paths (including your own). Take the one that leads most directly into the forest in front of you. So you leave 2 paths to your left and one to your right. You climb into the forest, ignoring a path to the right (at a Y-junction) after about 400m and another to the left after about 1.2km. You'll come out of the forest in a sort of open corridor that gradually opens up. A little higher up, you'll see the Mont Lozère ski resort, towards which you're heading, ignoring the paths to your left and right. About 2.8km after the Col Santel, you'll reach the ski resort.
(2) 200m after the resort buildings, you come to the D20, which you take in front of you (keep to the left for a few metres). Cross the road at the "Parc National des Cévennes" sign and continue along the D20 to the right, following the ski slope which begins to rise up through the grass between two wooden fences. The D20 gradually veers off to the left. Continue along the track until you reach an antenna at the foot of a water catchment/reservoir. At this point, you ignore the road you're crossing. But you also ignore the track that continues in front of you (not shown on the map) and take a path to your left, which climbs between the D20 and the ski slope. You climb steadily along the path, which is soon marked by standing stones. These indicate the path to follow over the rough grass and heather that cover the often wind-beaten mountain. From the ski resort, it's almost 3km uphill to the pass.
(3) At the pass (1,635m), you haven't yet reached the summit (which you can reach at 1,688m by turning right on the GR®70). But our route leaves the GR®70 at this point and doesn't go to the summit. Continue ahead for 200m. You cross a larger path. You pass an animal barrier (which you remember to close) and start down the small path that gradually goes deeper into the woods. The path is narrow and needs to be descended with care. After around 400m, you come across a larger track again, which you cross. You'll find your path almost in front of you again. Continue on this path, which twists and turns downhill to cross a small stream at the end of the wood. You continue along the path that follows the course of the stream and reach a track just as it begins to yaw.
(4) Turn left and immediately join the D20 road leading down from the pass. Turn right and follow it downhill for 1km to reach the village of Finiels.
(5) You're back on the official route of the Stevenson path and the GR®70. However, you don't take it straight away, as you continue through the village on the D20. As you leave the village and pass a small cemetery on your right, take the small road on your right (with a 30 km/h speed limit). This takes you through the rest of this mountain hamlet. After 100m, turn left into the small street that zigzags between the buildings. You join the road with the Stevenson path and the GR®70 at the crossroads (small chapel on your left). Return to the GR®70 and turn left onto the small road. This gradually becomes a track.
(6) 400m after the chapel, you find a path on your left which you take. (Please note that during this descent from Finiels to Pont-de-Montvert, a new signposting for the GR®70 has been put in place which differs in part from the route shown on the IGN maps). After 300m, you return to the mapped route, which you follow for just under 500m. Keep to the main path, which bends sharply to the right on a gentler slope (avoid the path on the left before this bend to the right). After this bend to the right, you pass over a stream, then a second one a little further down as you enter the wood. Continue downhill on the main path until you reach the hamlet of Rieumal.
(7) In Rieumal, you pass between buildings to reach a stretch of road which you take to the right for 400m. It ends up in the middle of houses and farm buildings. There's a road to the right, another to the left and one in front of you. Take this one. The path turns into a footpath and enters the mountain pastures. Then it enters under the trees to meet and cross the Peyrou stream. It continues under the trees before crossing another path where you keep to the left (which remains the main path). From Rieumal, you'll cover about 1.8km before beginning to overlook the town of Pont-de-Montvert. Keep to the left-hand path until you reach the first house. Take the first street you come to, leaving the one going down against you on the left, but taking the next one on the left, which goes down in your direction. Follow this little street downhill between the houses until you reach the D998.
Turn left to cross the first bridge over the Rieumalet. After passing between two houses, you come to the edge of the Tarn, which the photogenic old bridge spans. You are now at the finish point of this route (E).
