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Coming from Ax-les-Thermes on the N20, just after crossing the bridge over the Ruisseau du Nabre, turn left - take care as the road is very busy - into a small street following the sign for "Église romane" (Romanesque church). Cross the metal bridge over the Nabre and then turn immediately right. Pass the church in Mérens, driving carefully as the road is very narrow in places. Continue to the car park just below the church in Vives, a magnificent Romanesque building of which, unfortunately, only the bell tower remains intact.
(S/E) Return to the small road you came up on.
White and red GR® markings + directional signs
Turn right to go around the church, then turn right again at the corner of the boundary wall. Cross the road and go straight up, first taking a tarmac road and then a wide stony path that cuts across two bends. Join the road one last time at a bridge on the right and a wash house on the left.
(1) Do not cross the bridge, but take the small tarmac road (Rue de Saint-Touret) almost opposite. This quickly gives way to a wide path that climbs fairly steeply and steadily along the Ruisseau de Saint-Touret.
(2) At a weir (crossroads with directional signs), take a sharp left turn following the signs for "Col de Joux - Orgeix - Orlu". Keep heading north-west, pass under a fallen tree across the path (situation in September 2019) and reach a metal gate.
Go through it and make a sharp right turn. Continue climbing to pass the moving ruins of Saint-Touret and then the barns of Coual.
(3) Shortly after a spring that you can hear murmuring on your right, ignore the track that levels out on the left and continue climbing straight ahead to reach the Llata-Larguis forest road at the edge of the forest (direction signs).
(4) Turn right to follow this track, which further on makes a sharp left turn and then reaches a pretty clearing just before another sharp turn. Ignore the track on the left.
(5) At the bend, leave the track you have been following and take the wide grassy path opposite, which leads into a magnificent spruce forest. Cross the electric fence that bars the entrance to a large open space (Sarrat de Larguès) and continue along the ridge with a beautiful view of the Orgeix valley and the Pic des Estagnols on your right.
Then climb up to Cap du Camp (IGN route incorrect here) and descend to Col de Joux, a large grassy clearing with a shepherd's shelter above. Head for the signpost.
Yellow PR® markings + directional signs
(6) Leave the GR® and head left (west) into the meadow, following the sign for "Petches - Ax-les-Thermes". The buildings of the Bonascre - Les Trois Domaines ski resort are in sight. At the break in the slope, look for the wooden post with the yellow signpost, followed by several others that indicate the path to the forest entrance. You will soon reach a fork (directional signs).
(7) Turn left, following the signs for "Ax par Courtal-Juan". After a section that can be very muddy after heavy rain, the path widens and descends gently to the small Courtal-Jouan forest refuge, where there is a picnic table. Continue downhill to the forest road.
(8) Turn right and continue to a large multiple crossroads (signpost on the left).
(9) Leave the uphill track on your right and the one you have just followed opposite. Take the path that starts on the left, following the sign for "Couillet de Bergon - Mérens".
At Couillet de Bergon, the junction shown on the IGN map no longer exists on the ground. Continue along the path and keep going down the gentle slope.
(10) Be careful at this junction, which is not shown on the map and is not marked on the ground (I have placed a cairn). Turn right onto a narrow path that begins a very steep descent into the Bois de la Soulanette. After several hairpin bends, the path levels out before leading to a grassy track (direction sign).
Continue straight ahead on this track, which becomes partially paved before reaching the Croix de Larguis, a small iron cross located on a rocky promontory offering a beautiful view of Mérens-les-Vals and the upper Ariège valley.
(11) Do not continue along what has now become a small tarmac road, but turn left onto a narrow, barely visible path that starts at the foot of a signpost. This path, which is quite cluttered and stony, follows the contour line almost exactly until it joins the road at the Romanesque church of Vives, where you will find the car park where you started (S/E).
Visorando Member
Difficult 
Easy 
