Tour of Mont Chanzet starting from Panossas

Car park at Panossas, at the junction of Route de Bourgoin and Route de Veyssilieu.

(S/E) Leave the car park by taking Route de Veyssilieu to the left, with the bar-tobacconist’s opposite you. Follow this road to the junction before the village cemetery.

(1) Take the path on the left, which runs past the cemetery and then climbs gradually to the left. Once on a plateau, the path crosses large cultivated clearings. Ignore the secondary paths and tracks branching off to the left and right. The path, marked GR® Red and White, branches off to the right and runs alongside the forest

(2) Ignore a path on the left, which will be your return route. Continue to the A-road via the GR®, still ignoring the paths branching off to the left towards the forest.

(3) Once you reach the main road, turn left. After 100 metres, take the road that climbs up to the left, leaving the rubbish bins on your right. Continue along this road which, after about 500 metres, turns into a track that winds its way between a beautiful meadow on the left and hedgerows on the right.

(4) The track, still signposted GR®422, enters a beautiful forest. After just over a kilometre, you’ll pass a clearing on your left.

(5) Immediately afterwards, leave the GR® which turns to the right, and take the path in front of you, which leads downhill. Two hundred metres further on, you’ll reach a wide track. Cross it and take the path leading down in front of you. The path soon turns left, running alongside some thickets, with a large meadow on your right. When you reach a house, continue straight on along the Chemin du Château. When you reach a road, take it to the left.

(6) After less than 50 metres, as the road bends to the left, take the track on the right, with a beautiful dry-stone wall to its right.

(7) At the junction with another track, turn left. Shortly afterwards, ignore the path leading down to your left and continue straight on. You’ll walk alongside a magnificent dry-stone wall, the enclosure of Poizieu Castle. With the castle on your left, you’ll descend into the village.

(8) At the crossroads, take the street directly in front of you, with the courtyard of a beautiful farmhouse on your right. Continue along this road for about 500 metres. At the bend, ignore the path branching off to the left and continue along the road. Take care, as the verge on this short stretch is, unfortunately, quite narrow. When you reach open ground, on your left, a path branches off between the forest and a large tree.

(9) Follow it. It runs alongside the forest and leads you to the Chozeau cemetery.

(10) Walk along the edge of the cemetery and take the path on your left that climbs into the woods. After 20 metres, ignore the path—a dead end—on your left. The path climbs quite steeply and leads you to a junction.

(11) Take the path on your left, which continues to climb, still quite steeply. It turns to the right, becomes less steep, then relatively flat before joining another path. Turn right and continue along this pleasant, level path, almost at the summit of Mont Chanzet. After 500 metres, you’ll come to a wide, straight path.

(12) Take this wide, downhill path to the right. You will then reach the GR®422 route you took on the way there.

(2) Turn right, then follow the path you took on the way there, but in the opposite direction. After crossing the wide clearings, which you have already crossed in the other direction, the path descends to the cemetery. From there, take the road in front of you, which will quickly take you back to your car park (S/E).

(S/E) You can park your car in the Panossas car park, at the junction of Route de Bourgoin and Route de Veyssilieu. Directly opposite is a bar-tobacconist’s, which was open on the Sunday we visited.

(8): Château de Poizieu – Private, not open to visitors.