Tour de la Tortue and the Calvary of the Croix de l'Étoile

I suggest you start from the small car park next to Boussoulet Church.

(S/E) Turn left to join the B-road, which you follow to the left for about 400 metres. Be careful not to take the first road that goes straight ahead on the left towards the cemetery.

(1) Leave the road and take the path on the left. Continue along this for about 1.5 km. It passes through beautiful, shady deciduous forests. Ignore the paths and tracks that lead down to your right or up to the left, towards the Tortue cliffs.

(2) When you reach a junction with a signposted path in the forest, turn left. It will almost feel like you’re turning back, but gradually the path will emerge from the forest and cross a stretch of meadows, with lovely views to your right over the Montusclat Stream valley and the Mézenc in the distance. Join the D150.

(3) Cross it carefully and continue along the path opposite, which continues to descend. You’ll come out onto a wider track; follow it, turning left. Pass the cemetery on your left and join the D153.

(4) Cross it carefully and continue along the road leading downhill in front of you. You will arrive in front of the town hall and the beautiful church of Montusclat. Pass to the left of it.

(5) Take the first street on the right.

(6) After the bridge, take the path on the right that runs alongside the Ruisseau de Montusclat and stay on this track, which goes round the hill to your left and leads, after just over 2 km, to the houses of the hamlet of Pouzol Vieux.

(7) Take the road going uphill on your left, between two houses. A narrow path, at the bend in this road, climbs between two houses in poor condition and winds its way into the forest. Make your way to the Chapelle de la Croix de l’Étoile.

(8) Follow the Way of the Cross to the left, which leads you to the Calvary and the statue of Our Lady of La Salette, with a lovely view over the Gagne valley.

(9) Head back down the same path to the chapel.

(8) Follow the wide track in front of you.

(10) At the crossroads marked by an old stone cross, take the path leading down to the left. When you reach a fork, ignore the path straight ahead and continue down to the left towards the village of Montusclat and the bridge you crossed earlier.

(6) Cross the bridge and take the road straight ahead.

(5) Continue straight ahead, cross a road and head straight on, keeping the stream on your right.

(11) Just before another bridge, take the path branching off to the left. After about ten metres, a steep path climbs up to the left. Follow it; it leads directly to the village of Boussoulet through a very wild valley. Pass beneath the cemetery on your left, and after a final climb, you’ll reach Boussoulet church and the car park (S/E).

Car park in front of the church in Boussoulet.

There is a hotel-restaurant on one of the squares in Boussoulet.

(S/E) Boussoulet Church: a church converted in the 19th century from an old farmhouse. The altar is made from a huge block of phonolite, a type of lava found in particular in the Meygal and Lizieux massifs.

Sanctuary of the Croix de l’Étoile: its origins date back to May 1721, when the area was ravaged by a plague epidemic. The inhabitants prayed to heaven to ward off the scourge, vowing to make an annual pilgrimage to Notre-Dame de Tout Pouvoir in Araules. The plague does indeed seem to have spared them. A day-long pilgrimage was no simple hike in those days. To reach Araules, one had to follow goat tracks. Faced with this difficulty, the Bishop of Le Puy, a few years later, commuted the vow to an annual solemn procession, held on the first Sunday in July, to the cross erected on the Montagne de l’Étoile.

In 1882, Father Charre wished to mark his gratitude to the Virgin Mary for having preserved these deeply faithful parishioners in a more significant way, drawing inspiration from the similarity of the events surrounding the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette.