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In Corent, park in the school car park at the northern entrance to the village.
(S/E) Turn your back on the bus stop and take the street opposite, in the direction indicated by the small yellow sign. Ignore a street on the left. Further on, at an intersection, continue straight ahead.
(1) Turn onto the first street on the right (small yellow sign). This street immediately turns left. Immediately after, turn right onto a path following the blue markings. At a vineyard, ignore the path on the right. Further on, at a fork, veer left. You will come to a street with a carved stone cross on your right. Turn left and go up this street, ignoring a street on the right, towards the centre of the village of Soulasse. Ignore the Chemin des Thermes on your left. At the next intersection, continue straight on towards the church tower overlooking the houses.
(2) Pass a beautiful fountain on your right and continue along the street (Grand Rue) that crosses the village. At the crossroads, turn left towards the church. Pass in front of it and continue, ignoring the streets that descend to the left. At the edge of the village, at a fork with a path, take this path on the right and then, immediately after, turn right again. Pass a water reservoir on your left and continue along this beautiful path through the woods and along the hillside.
(3) Ignore two grassy paths on the left at the intersection with a wide path. Follow it to the left. Further on, leave this path and climb up to the left onto a stony path. At a fork, not marked on the map, continue to the right.
(4) You will end up facing an old quarry. Turn left for a few metres, then leave the dirt track and climb up the grassy path (blue markings). This path goes around the quarry on the left. Continue to pass to the left of a windsock (you are at a paragliding take-off site). Continue along the grassy path in the same direction (north). At the junction with a wider path (another windsock about 30 metres to your left), turn right onto this path. Further on, you will see a small yellow sign on the left of the path, pointing out the summit of Puy de Corent just to your right. Continue along this wide path. You will see the columns of the Plateau de Corent archaeological site ahead of you.
(5) Enter the archaeological site through the first gate on your right. Discover this rich archaeological site, occupied first by the Gauls and then by the Romans. Numerous information panels will guide you to the eastern part of the site. You will then come to a wide path, with the Corent sports ground in front of you and a crossroads and car park on your left. Take the path on the right.
(6) At the next intersection, at the fitness trail, turn left and walk to the ruins overlooking a balcony over the Allier valley and the village of Corent, just below. Here again, you will find information panels about this wine-growing village, as well as enamelled lava plaques scattered on the low wall to serve as an orientation table.
(6) Back at the intersection, continue straight ahead. At the next intersection, in the bend, leave the road and continue straight ahead on the path. At the fork (sign prohibiting the removal of pozzolan), ignore the path on the right that climbs towards Roc Rouge. After a hairpin bend to the left, you will come to an intersection. Turn right. Further on, ignore a path on the left.
(7) Just to the right of the path, you will see the stone arch of an old fountain. Further on, ignore the path that branches off to the right and continue straight ahead. Further on, the path turns to the right. Shortly afterwards, leave it and take a path on the left, along a vineyard. At the next crossroads, continue straight ahead. Then ignore a path on the right.
(8) At the fork, take the path on the left, heading east. The path soon turns north-east. Ignore two paths on the left. You will arrive at the pretty Fontaine de Chalus fountain and its Cabane des Laveuses wash house.
(9) Continue straight ahead until you reach a wide path. Follow it to the right and, immediately afterwards, ignore a wide embankment and continue on the path that curves to the right. Shortly afterwards, at an intersection, continue to the left, then ignore a path that branches off to the right and backwards.
(10) You will come to a road. Follow it to the right, taking the wider shoulder on the left-hand side of the bend. Continue along this road, which is not very busy, past the houses of Pont des Goules.
(11) You will come to a busier road, the D96. Follow it to the left for about 50 metres. Leave it as it curves to the right to cross the Allier river and turn left onto a very small road. Continue along this small road, where nature has reclaimed its rights, above the Allier river, which runs along your right-hand side. Opposite you, on the other side of the Allier, near the water treatment plant, along the railway line, you will see a group of large buildings: one of the Banque de France's paper mills.
(12) As you approach the first houses of Les Côtes Blanches, you will see small wooden signs on the left-hand side of the road indicating a staircase on the right leading down to a spring. Take this log staircase for a return trip to the banks of the Allier. Discover a pretty little sparkling water spring.
(12) Back on the road, continue to the right. You will soon reach Rue des Sources. Turn left and then immediately left again onto Chemin des Gaumes. Follow this path, which climbs quite steeply up to the Plateau de Corent. On the way up, ignore a path on the right, then a path that descends to the left. You will come to a small road.
(13) Take this road to the left and head south, along the bottom of the village of Corent. At the next crossroads, turn right, passing the sign for "Corent, village vigneron" (Corent, wine-growing village), and follow this road, which makes a sharp right-hand bend.
(14) At the end of the bend, turn left and head back towards Rue Principale. Follow this road as it curves to the right, then continue straight ahead, ignoring the side streets on either side, until you reach the church. Continue to the right and, just behind the church, turn left to pass under the stone archway. Note the cellar door handles, which are made from vine stocks. At the next intersection, turn right and then continue straight ahead. At the next fork, turn right onto Rue Haute. At the next crossroads, turn left and you will soon reach the car park (S/E).
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