Saint-Genès bourg - Laschamps via the pass between Mercœur and Lassolas

Departure from the Saint-Genès Centre TAD stop, D52, in front of the school, in Saint-Genès.

(S) With the school on your left, follow the road up towards the centre of the village (north). Pass the church on your right and the town hall on your left, leave the village and carefully follow the bend in the road to the right, then take the first road on the left. Pass the cemetery, continue straight on along the path that extends the road and you will arrive at a road, the D5.

(1) Cross and continue straight ahead on the road towards Chatrat. Stay on the road until you reach a fork in the road a few metres away, at a cross. Then take the dirt track on the left, Chemin de la Croix de Beaune. Ignore a street on the right, then a path leading off to the left.

(2) Pass the Croix de Beaune, set back slightly on the left, and continue straight ahead on the path to descend and reach the village of Beaune le Chaud.

(3) Feel free to leave the route temporarily to explore the village further. Leave Rue de l'Église on your right, continue straight ahead on Rue de la Cote, pass a drinking fountain on your right, follow the bend in the road to the left, then turn left at the next street, Rue du Four, at the wash house. Ignore the side streets and you will come to a road, the D52, at a drinking fountain. Cross the road and turn right, passing in front of the bus shelter, then take the first street on the left. At the fork immediately after, continue straight ahead, passing a fountain on your right, and at the next fork, keep to the right. You will soon come to another fork, at some farm buildings on the right.

(4) Follow the path on the left and leave Beaune le Chaud. Further on, ignore a path on the right.

(5) Immediately after, ignore a path on the left (Les Palles Hautes signpost), then three other paths on the left, and you will arrive at a crossroads with four paths.

(6) Continue straight ahead and climb into the forest as the path becomes a trail, which is rutted in places and a little steep. You will arrive at the pass between the Mercœur and Lassolas hills.

(7) Continue downhill until you reach the intersection with the path marked^GR®®4(red and white markings).

(8) Follow it to the right and arrive at an open space, a crossroads of multiple paths, some of which are private.

(9) Continue straight ahead on the^GR®®, ignoring all side paths, and arrive at Laschamps, at a car park for hikers with picnic tables.

(10) Continue straight ahead to join the D52 road, cross it and follow the street opposite. You will come to a street; follow it to the left to reach the church and the Laschamps Église TAD bus stop (E).

Difficulty: Moderate, no particular difficulties except for a slightly steep climb, standard hiking equipment required.
I recommend the Visorando app

Outward journey: Jaude, line A (La Pardieu Gare) => CHU Montpied then TAD to Saint-Genès Centre.
Return: Laschamps Église, TAD => Royat Place Allard then line B (Stade Marcel Michelin) => Jaude.
TAD.

Discover more hikes in this area with a description or the Visorando app here and more generally in the Puy-de-Dôme here

With this stage, we leave the villages of the green belt of the Clermont-Ferrand metropolitan area, all former wine-growing villages, to reach the mountain villages of the Plateau des Dôme. We discover a beautiful architectural heritage in Beaune le Chaud, with its church, old village houses and farm buildings, as well as numerous fountains, often coupled with drinking troughs.
From the church, located on the heights of the village, you can see the landscape that the route follows, through meadows and communal land, before reaching the forest that covers the slopes of the Mey, Lassolas and Mercœur hills.
The pretty little climb, steep in places, to the pass between Merœur and Lassolas is good training for the next stage!
After a descent, which is also a little steep in places, the^GR®®, on which you will begin to encounter a few more people than at the start of the journey, again a kind of preparation for the next stage, leads gently to Laschamps. This village also has a beautiful architectural heritage, despite a tragic fire in 1865, which you can explore at your leisure at the end of the hike. In particular, as you walk around the church, along Rue des Fontaines, you will discover a beautiful fountain.
There is a small geological curiosity in Laschamps that is not to be missed if you have a compass (which I strongly recommend, by the way!): at (10) on the hiker's car park, after passing the water catchment on your right, look for a path that branches off to the right. Follow it (watch your step) until you find rocks with small round holes in them. These are not natural but were drilled to allow an ancient magnetic field to diffuse out of the rock. Bring your compass close... it will lose its north!