Vieugy Forest Trail

Park in the car park between the football pitch and Vieugy cemetery. It is situated along the road shortly after Vieugy church when coming from Annecy. On your sat-nav, enter 111 Route de Vieugy.

(S/E) Leave the car park onto Route de Vieugy, turn left, go round the cemetery and take Allée des Forges on the left. After the long right-hand bend, you’ll reach a junction with Allée des Fournais.

(1) Leave this return route on your left and carry on straight ahead along the Allée des Forges, ignoring the side paths to the left or right, until you reach the junction with the Chemin Chez Blot. Follow this for about fifty metres and continue along the Allée de Sochein until it bends to the right.

(2) At the lowest point, in the bend, take a small shortcut off Allée de Sochein (a very short footpath) which leads to a roundabout.
Go round it on the left (using the pedestrian crossings) to reach Chemin du Purgatoire. Shortly after the right-hand bend, turn left along the road (unpaved at the start) at the sign for “Les Jets” and walk for about 50 metres.

(3) Before the left-hand bend on the road, which has now become tarmac, leave it and take the Chemin de la Montagne, which climbs to the right. Continue to the Ruisseau des Trois Fontaines, occasionally taking the narrow path running parallel to the left to avoid the main path, which is often very muddy. Cross the stream.

(4) Take the Chemin de la Montagne on the left, which climbs gently. (Caution: do not go all the way to the left onto the path that descends alongside the stream).

(5) When you reach a hunters’ hut on the left, turn right along the dirt track beneath a beautiful canopy of trees. Walk downhill to a sign prohibiting entry to a military firing range.

(6) At this sign, turn sharply left. Walk past a house and you’ll come to a wash house flanked by two fairly typical signs: “Impasse loin des Charrets” (from where you’ve come) and “Chemin de Moulin le Dernier”, which you should follow to the left. From here, the rest of the walk will be on a tarmac road. Stay along the road until you reach the entrance to Seynod Vieugy, just before a bridge over the Ruisseau des Trois Fontaines.

(7) Cross the bridge and continue straight ahead along the Rue de l’Ancien Chef-lieu. On the uphill stretch, look out for the tiny old church of Vieugy on the left, in a small clearing.
Walk through Vieux Vieugy in this way until you reach a junction with a wide track (closed to all traffic except farm vehicles and cycles). About twenty metres further on, you’ll notice a beautiful cross standing on a plinth on the right, in front of a house.

(8) Turn left onto this dirt track. It leads to the roundabout at the ‘Résidence Le Grand Chêne’ care home. Carry on straight ahead along Rue Aimé Mugnier, then turn left to stay on this street and finally turn right onto Allée des Fournais. Wind your way along Allée des Fournais, passing in front of the blocks of flats but without ever entering any dead-end streets. You’ll come to a Stop sign leading onto Allée des Forges at the junction you passed on the way out.

(1) Carry on straight ahead, following the route you took on the way there in the opposite direction, and you’ll reach the car park (S/E).