Tour of the Bois des Granges forest starting from Abondance

Park in the large car park at Place du Champ de Foire, near the old market hall, on the left bank of the Dranse.

(S/E) Head left towards the Dranse and, just before the bridge, turn left and leave the post office on your right. Cross a stream and continue straight ahead, ignoring a dead end and a street on your left.

(1) At the next intersection, on the banks of the Dranse, turn left and pass a tennis court on your right. At the fork halfway down the court, keep right on a track and cross a car park for motorhomes. Then turn right.

(2) After about 100 metres, turn left and enter a wood. Continue straight ahead, passing buildings on your right.

(3) You will come out onto a small road. Follow it to the left and uphill. At the fork shortly afterwards, take the left-hand path, still uphill, and cross the hamlet of Les Granges.

(4) At the next fork, keep left (ignore the access to the Tronchet farm on the right). Ignore two paths on the left, then two roads on the right. Then turn left at the hairpin bend with the main road and reach a new intersection.

(5) Turn left and cross a bridge over a stream. Follow Route de la Lanche around several bends, passing the hamlet of Crêt at the beginning and the Lanches farm at the end.

(6) At a three-way junction, near a chalet, take Chemin des Druges on the right. Climb steeply along the edge of the woods, then slightly inside the woods. At a T-junction, go left. After about 150 metres, you will reach an intersection in open terrain.

(7) Turn left onto a grassy path towards Abondance. Leave the Vergay chalets on your left and continue through the woods on a carriage road. Pass the "Les Combes" sign (wet crossing). Climb up to a crossroads in open terrain (sign for "Frémoux dessus").

(8) Take a carriageway on the left that descends. Leave the Frémoux dessus chalet on your left and enter the woods again.

(9) At the sign for "Frémoux dessous", turn left. Pass the Frémoux dessous chalets and continue along a tarmac road. Pass under the Essert cable car line. Cross a stream and arrive at a crossroads.

(10) Turn left onto Chemin du Nant de Frogy. At the junction with a road coming from the right, take a path on the left. At the next junction with the tarmac road, follow a path on the left and cross a stream. Continue downhill. When you reach the lower station of the cable car, turn right and you will immediately come to a road.

(11) Follow it to the left and leave the cable car station on your left. Walk past a secondary school on your left, then a college on your right and continue straight ahead. At a T-junction, turn left and quickly return to Place du Champ de Foire (S/E).

Visit Abondance Abbey (on the right bank of the Dranse).

Abondance AOP farm cheese for sale at the Tronchet farm (4).