Discovering the ponds of the Double Forest

Parking is available in the large car park in front of the church and the town hall in Saint-Jean-d’Ataux.

(S/E) From the signpost near the church, walk past the town hall. At the Fork in the road, keep left onto the Route de la Siboutie. Follow this small road for about 750 m until you reach the junction with the DFCI tracks.

(1) Turn right onto the VC5 and follow the unpaved track (castine).

(2) Just before reaching the tarmac road, turn left onto the small grassy track, which then leads onto a tarmac road; take this road on the left. You’ll arrive at the charming hamlet of Puy de Siorac.

(3) Before the S-bend, take the small dirt track on the left. View of a pretty little meadow nestled in the forest. “You can take a short break at the Puy de Siorac fountain (private), which is on the right.” Then continue straight on along the dirt track, which leads to a Y-junction.

(4) Turn left at the right-angled bend, cross a stream and follow the grassy track, which then joins another track at a place called Les Planches. Turn right onto the Chemin de la Servantie and cross a small bridge. Continue to the right until you reach the D709.

(5) Take care when crossing the road, then carry on straight ahead for 200 m. At the junction, turn right onto the path leading to the hamlet of La Veyssière.

(6) Just before you reach it, turn left onto the small path. Carry on straight ahead at the three-way junction, leaving the path on your left. After the climb through the pine forest, turn right at the three-way junction. On the long straight stretch, continue along this path, leaving the path on your right. After a few hundred metres, carry on straight ahead towards Le Grand Claud, leaving the D.F.C.I. track on your left.

(7) At the fork, head slightly to the right. Further on, there’s a lovely view of the private Méraud pond.

(8) Then turn right towards Le Bleuil. Walk alongside another private pond. Carry on straight ahead, passing the first path on the right and the next one on the left. View to the right over the private pond at Le Bleuil. At the tarmac road, carry on straight ahead. View to the right over a private pond before reaching the hamlet of Le Bleuil, which you pass through.

(9) Turn left, heading due north, onto the small grassy track 150 metres before the D709. Walk alongside a large meadow on the left, then rejoin the track leading off to the right. Continue straight on, passing a small track on the left, and carry on along the tarmac Banoux track until you reach the D709.

(10) Cross carefully and take the Route du Petit Pont straight ahead. Cross the Beauronne and follow the tarmac road into the hamlet of Marroux-Bas. At the end of the Route du Petit Pont, you’ll see the covered well at Billebeau. Turn right and continue for about a hundred metres.

(11) Then leave the tarmac road and turn left onto the Chemin des Anciennes Vignes, which runs alongside a large meadow with a lovely view of a private pond. At the end of this path, turn right onto the Chemin de l’Impasse des Verrières, then rejoin the tarmac road. Turn left to return to (S/E).

This hike can be done on foot, by mountain bike or on horseback.

The village and its church.

The Double Forest.

The Puy de Siorac Fountain
This fountain, which was once public, was sold in 1956. The mayor at the time sold almost all the fountains in the village to fund the cemetery’s boundary wall.