Short circular loop from Chanteuges to the Allier

Parking is available at the station car park or on Rue des Moulins (café and bakery open Tuesday to Saturday).

(S/E) From the bridge over the Desges, in the centre of Chanteuges, follow the GR®470 ( red and white markings ) towards the abbey via the Calade Saint-Marcellin until you reach the abbey entrance: 15 metres from the bridge, take the paved slanting street leading uphill to the left; after 20 metres , turn left , ignoring a paved slanting street leading slightly further up to the left;turn right in front of a garden, then immediately left beneath the abbey wall. From the abbey entrance(which is worth visiting if you enter via the porch), head down Rue de l’Abbaye , which lies opposite; leave the GR® after alodge onthe right and continue straight on along the street.

(1)Pass a street on the left leading to the cemetery. At a small square with a drinking trough, turn left and follow this street to the edge of the hamlet (de la Vialle).

(2) 40 metres past the last house, at a small transformer, take a grassy cart track that descends to the right (Chemin du Bateau). It leads to the ferryman’s shelter beneath the cliff and to the River Allier. Carry on straight ahead, following the left bank of the Allier upstream. After the rocks, level with a pond on the right, follow the Allier straight away through the grass and then along the fishermen’s path, 3–10 metres from the Allier, through a small woodland (a natural camping area on the right beyond a track suitable for vehicles). At the riverside spot on the Allier (Mallat), opposite a basalt cliff (with a cave in the slope), head away from the Allier at right angles, following the tyre tracks until you reach a tarmac path. Take this path to the left, running alongside a small wood.

(3) 10 metres after the entrance to a villa on the right, take a path that climbs to the right into the woods. A few metres further on, ignore a path that climbs to the right and enter the woods, heading straight ahead. An alternative is to continue along the small tarmac road which climbs and joins a main road (see Practical Information). Otherwise, stay on the path, which opens out opposite a wire fence onto a wide cart track (GR®470, marked in white and red), the old road from Langeac to Saugues until around 1825, which you should follow to the right. Ignore the track branching off to the left before a villa and carry on straight ahead. You’ll come out onto a small road (with an iron cross on the right), which you should follow straight ahead, passing through the hamlet of Le Péroux towards the church.

(4) Before the road bends to the right, leave the GR® and take the paved slanting street de la Fontaine, which descends to the left, leading to the bridge over the Desges (S/E).

Park in the station car park or on Rue des Moulins (café and tobacconist, bakery and grocery shop open Tuesday to Saturday, inn).

Toilets and a water point are available in summer at the natural campsite on the banks of the Allier. Fountain at (4).

Towards (3): once you reach the road, turn immediately right onto a rocky cart track that climbs uphill, the Chemin Grand (GR®). At the top of the short slope, you’ll reach the footpath opposite a wire fence.

At the top of the Calade St-Marcellin, overlooking the village of Chanteuges, you can visit the former abbey – which became a priory until 1787 – with its late^11th-century church and early^16th-century chapel.

When you reach the River Allier, take a look at the ferryman’s shelter and the remains of the ferry, which operated until 1943.