Mesples - Huriel

Red and yellow^GRP®® signposting on the Sur Les Pas des Maîtres Sonneurs trail

(S) Head towards the town hall in Mesples and turn right towards the dairy farm; follow the road to the farm. Pass a large barn on your left and take the wide path straight ahead (south) to Laleuf.

(1) Pass the entrance to a castle and continue left until you reach the D149. Turn right and follow the road for about 500 m until you reach a crossroads.

(2) At the crossroads, turn right onto a track. Leave the Château de Bouyon on your left and follow the stony track downhill to the D150 (viewpoint of the Puy de Dôme). Follow the road for 250 m, turn left, then right and follow a sunken track to Bourzeau.

(3) In Bourzeau, descend along the D549 road on the right. In a bend, leave it and take the path furthest to the left (east). At a road, turn left and, at the entrance to a farm, turn right onto a grassy path. Cross the D71 (take care) and continue opposite. Turn right onto a road, then right again at Pas de l'Âne (at the corner of a barn) and left 100 metres further on. At Pardeux, turn right and then immediately after at a crossroads. Continue straight ahead to descend to the site of Nocq, on the banks of the Meuzelle. Cross the footbridge over the Meuzelle and follow the path uphill to a small road.

(4) Follow this road to the right. At the next crossroads, turn right and join the D71. Follow it for 250 m, then turn left (take care).

(5) Leave it on the right and take a wide path. Continue slightly uphill for about 1.6 km until you reach a road arriving at Fareille.

(6) In Fareille, go around a pond on the left, then turn right and then left. Take the Chemin de la Rivière (view of the village of Huriel, its keep and church); ignore one path on the right and two on the left. At a three-way junction, go left. Follow the road to the right towards Huriel. At the entrance to a bridge, turn left and follow a water reservoir along the path above it. Go down towards the river, cross it at the ford and climb up to Huriel. Turn left onto Rue de la Croix to reach the church (E).

You can reach the keep by turning right from the church and continuing along Grand'rue.

Accommodation: Mesples (group lodge), Chambérat, Huriel. www.sentiermaitressonneurs.com Ch.: organise your hike
Refreshments: Mesples, Huriel.
Water points: Mesples, Chambérat, Huriel.

Mesples: Church.

Chambérat: Overlooking the Meuzelle, in the 19th century, the parish church of Saint Marcel, located in Nocq, was in ruins. The bishop of Moulins prohibited its use and the building was subsequently destroyed. The new village priest, a great devotee of Saint Joseph, decided to build a church in the centre of the village of Chambérat, the site of a well-known fair. The neo-Gothic church is topped by a statue of Saint Joseph and still has some beautiful remains of frescoes with a ceiling dotted with stars

Fair:1st Monday after Assumption Day (15 August). Certainly in existence since Gallo-Roman times, it is one of the largest and oldest fairs in the region. Originally dedicated to horses and agricultural products, it attracts several thousand visitors every year. Around 1850, a cheese made from raw whole cow's milk was created, called "Le Chambérat".

Nearby: La Brande des Mottes, site of a peasant revolt.

Huriel: Village of Art

Church: built in the 12th century, it has inherited the characteristics of each of its neighbours: Berry in the narrow side passages between the nave and the transept, Auvergne in the octagonal bell tower covered with chestnut shingles resting on a square base. The building is almost entirely surrounded by a string course and the roof cornice is supported by carved granite modillions. Inside, there is an ancient baptismal font, a 150-litre granite vat and a polychrome wooden Virgin Mary standing on a wine press screw. The church also houses a 17th-century painting attributed to the school of Le Guerchin and a 12th-13th-century wrought iron grille, classified as a Historic Object and assembled without any welding or rivets.

Keep: Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, La Toque, so named because of the old pointed roof that covered it until 1903, is one of the few medieval military keeps in excellent condition in France (listed as a Historic Monument in 1885). The windows and fireplaces were added in the 15th and 16th centuries for greater comfort. The staircase turret dates from the 1903 restoration. The disappearance of the four-sided roof reduced the height of the tower to 25 metres instead of the 33 metres of the original construction (100 feet). It has been replaced by a panoramic terrace, which can be reached after climbing the 105 steps leading up to it. The vaulted cellar houses a reconstruction of a winegrower's cellar and a small museum of rural life in the Bourbon region. The various rooms of the keep, with their original chestnut ceilings, provide a beautiful setting for summer exhibitions. One of the restored towers houses a wooden model of the Château d'Huriel as it was in the 16th century.