The Vallon d’Orjolle from Sainte-Foy-l’Argentière

Start from the church square.

(S/E) Head south along the Route d’Aveize, leaving the church and the castle on your left. Turn left into Rue du Marché. At the junction, turn left onto Boulevard du 19 Mars 1962 and cross the bridge over the Ruisseau d’Orjolle.

(1) Just off the bridge, take a path that runs alongside the river and veers away from it after about a hundred metres. At the T-junction, turn right and walk alongside the secondary school. After the cemetery, take the^first path on the left, the Chemin du Domaine. Cross the Route de Duerne and you’ll immediately come to a three-way junction.

(2) Then turn right onto the Chemin de Gouttemorte. Next, take the^first path on the left. Walk through a small wood and you’ll come to a T-junction. Turn left here and walk behind the Château de la Valsonnière.

(3) At the junction (cross), turn right and climb a steep slope. Enter a wood, stay on the main path and keep heading south.

(4) Turn right onto the Brévenne Aqueduct path, which supplied Lyon during the Roman era. Follow this lovely, flat path, heading south-south-west then west. Then take a sharp left-hand bend and head uphill. As you emerge from the woods, ignore a path branching off to the right and continue to the hamlet of Montfort (superb view of the Monts du Forez).

(5) Walk through the hamlet and head back down the tarmac road. Join the D489 and follow it to the left for about a hundred metres.

(6) Before a sharp left-hand bend, leave the road and take a downhill path on the right. At the bottom, cross the Ruisseau d’Orjolle and head back uphill. You’ll soon reach a tarmac track; follow it to the right.

(7) When the road turns right towards the hamlet of Haut d’Orjolle, carry on straight ahead along a path which soon heads west and, at a Fork in the road (elevation 612), keep to the right to quickly reach a small road.

(8) Follow this road to the right and downhill. Pass through the hamlet of Orjolle and follow the tarmac road to the place known as Le Trouillard. About 150 m further on, you’ll reach a junction.

(9) Then head downhill to the right. At the end of the tarmac, turn left onto a path through a wood. On emerging from the wood, continue along a small road.

(10) Join the D4 and follow it to the right. Carry straight on along this road. At the junction with the D61 (the junction you took on the way out), cross the Ruisseau d’Orjolle again.

(1) As you come off the bridge, turn left and then immediately left again, following the stream. Cross to the left into the tree-lined municipal park. At the end, turn right past the town hall, then left into the Grande Rue. You’ll soon reach the church square (S/E).