Country:
District:
The hike starts at the car park at the intersection of Rue de l'Église and Rue du Frelin (electric vehicle charging station). Avoid driving further to the town hall, media library and church car park, which is very small and often full.
(S/E) Join Rue de l'Église and follow it to the right.
(1) Pass in front of the church (12th century, sculpted façade) and continue along the street until you reach the town hall and its monumental façade. Then turn right onto Rue de la Limoise.
(2) Cross Rue du Bois on the left-hand side (this will be the way back) and continue straight ahead for about 500 metres.
(3) Turn left onto a tarmac road lined with trees on both sides. Pass a covered well (known as "Pierre Loti") and then the hamlet of La Limoise. Cross a path on the left-hand side and you will immediately come to another intersection.
(4) Then turn right onto a wide white path and walk along a wood on your left. You will come to a small tarmac road and follow it to the left for about 300 m.
(5) Then turn left, pass a chicane made of rocks, and follow a narrow dirt track that enters a wood. You will come out onto a large open space (a former quarry) and go around it on the right, ignoring a path on the left that enters the quarry. At the corner of the former quarry, turn left onto the path, which narrows but remains clearly marked. Enter a dense wood, turn immediately right, cross two or three ditches following a faint path and reach the bank of the Canal de la Seudre à la Charente.
(6) Turn left, take the towpath and follow the canal on your right.
(7) After about 1 km, take the metal lift bridge built in 2020 for cyclists and walkers to cross the canal.
(8) On the other side, turn left and follow the canal on your left. After about 500 m, stay on the path that continues straight ahead while the canal veers to the left. This path is an old railway line (greenway); note the small sculptures carved into the rock on either side of the path.
(9) Go under a road bridge and continue straight ahead.
(10) Turn right onto a white path that descends towards Lac du Bois Fleuri (signposted). Follow the canal on your left for about 150 metres. Then cross a wooden bridge. Continue along a wooden walkway, reach the lake and go around it on the right. Ignore a humpback footbridge on the left that leads to an island (dead end).
(11) Shortly afterwards, turn left onto a floating footbridge to cross to the other side of the lake. Then turn left and you will come to a wooden barrier on the right-hand side of the path.
(12) Go through a passage in this barrier and follow a grassy path uphill. You will come out onto a small road. Follow it to the left for about 100 metres and cross the greenway.
(13) At the crossroads immediately ahead, turn left onto a small tarmac road running parallel to the greenway at the start (Rue du Moulin de l'Angle), then veering off to the right.
(14) Take the bridge over the Canal de Pont l'Abbé and cross "l'Île Maurice" (Mauritius Island), indicated by a sign... Pass in front of the Moulin de l'Angle campsite and continue along the road. Cross the bridge over the greenway and continue along the small road.
(15) At the first house, leave the road, which turns sharply to the left, and take a short dirt track on the right, which quickly leads to the metal footbridge you took on the way there.
(8) Cross the Seudre Canal at the Charente again.
(7) On the other side, continue straight ahead towards Échillais. Walk along the Bois du Chay on your right.
(16) Take the first path on the left. At the next intersection, continue straight ahead. Enter Échillais via Rue du Bois Rond and rejoin Rue de la Limoise.
(2) Follow it to the right. Shortly afterwards, turn left onto Rue de l'Église. Pass the town hall again, then the church, and return to the car park where you started (S/E).
A lovely walk, not too difficult and not too muddy despite the season.
Association / Club / Walk leader
Easy 
Visorando member
