Crossing the Mont de l'Échelle and Bonière State Forests

No signposting

(S) From the Domaine de Charmois, take the road towards Avot. Head downhill, ignoring the paths on both the right and left. You will reach a sawmill at a place called "Sur les Roches à Conas".

(1) Continue down the road, passing the first houses of Avot. You will reach a crossroads.

(2) Turn right onto Rue de la Charrière, cross the Tille. At the T-junction, turn right onto Rue du Ruisselot (signpost for the GR® 7 “Poiseul-lès-Saulx 7 km”).

Red and white markings

(3) At the fork in the road, head left up into the Avot Communal Forest along the grassy path. At another fork in the road, continue to the right.

(4) At the crossroads, head up to the left (south). At the top (crossroads), head down opposite. At the Fork in the road, continue down the path opposite. At the T-junction, head down to the right (marker) and at the Fork in the road, continue down to the left. At another fork in the road, head down to the right, reaching the bottom of the Combe de Prêle in the Mont de l'Échelle State Forest.

(5): At the crossroads, head up to the left into the valley along the stony path (GR® 7 signpost “Poiseul-lès-Saulx 4 km”). Cross a clearing and reach a car park at a crossroads (bench).

(6) Take the second path on the left and, via the Sentier du Chanvre, reach the Fontaine de Champignolles (GR® 7 signpost “Poiseul-lès-Saulx 3.7 km”). Continue straight ahead along a path through the hazel trees, then head up to the right. At the fork in the road, turn right, cross the D112 and continue straight ahead. At the T-junction (wind gauge mast), head down to the right (municipal boundary marker).

(7) At the T-junction, turn left into the Combe de Vaubois. Ignore the paths branching off to the left and right.

(8) At the crossroads, head up the second path on the right (Ancien Chemin d’Avelanges). At the Fork in the road, continue the climb straight ahead (right-hand branch). Cross a field, continue along the edge and across the fields, emerging onto a triangular square in Poiseul-lès-Saulx (cross and signpost for the GR® 7 “Tarsul 6.5 km”).

(9) Follow the Grande Rue straight ahead and pass in front of the church. At the town hall, which is on the opposite pavement, turn left into Rue de Courtivron. At the Fork in the road, take the path on the left, then enter the Forêt Domaniale de la Bonière.

(10) At the Fork in the road, continue straight ahead, then at a crossroads, head uphill straight ahead. Descend into a valley. At the next crossroads, head uphill to the left, then descend into the Combe Gobillon and reach the D112P.

(11) Cross the road and, at the crossroads, go straight ahead through a gate and head up into the Combe Pollier.

(12) At the crossroads, head up to the right. You’ll come out onto a stony track; follow it straight ahead into plot 129. Ignore the grassy paths running perpendicular to the track. You’ll reach a clearing from which you can look down on the first houses of Tarsul from La Roche Aiguë.

(13) Head down the path to the left through the forest. Cross a gully and, at the T-junction, take the path on the right. Turn left onto a path that winds above Tarsul. At the T-junction, go up to the left, then down to the right between plots 107 and 108 into the Combe des Andières. At the next junction, go down to the right, then go through a gate and come out onto the D901.

(14) Turn right onto it. At the junction, turn left onto the D6B towards Tarsul. Cross the two branches of the Ignon and reach the Tarsul war memorial (E).

Walk undertaken by the author on 14/06/2020.
This route follows the GR® 7 from Avot en (3).

Domaine de Charmois (S): guest rooms. Located within the catchment area of the Forêts National Park. It was here that the Second World War Resistance fighters set up the base camp for the Maquis Lucius, which played a part in the Liberation of the northern Côte d’Or in 1944.

Fontaine de Champignolles: picnic area, shelter, shortly after (6).

Poiseul-lès-Saulx: basic shelter converted from a communal oven, further on (9).

Tarsul (E): guest rooms and table d’hôte.

Type II ZNIEFF (Natural Area of Ecological Interest, Freedom and Conservation) in the Dijon mountains, from the Ignon valley to the Ouche valley, from (5) to (E).

Washing places at:
- Avot, between (2) and (3),
- La Fontaine de Champignolles: information board on hemp processing, hemp retting pits to the left below, shortly after (6),
- Tarsul at (E).

Anemometer mast: temporary installation, 131 m high, for the BOIS DES SAULX wind farm project, between (6) and (7).

Poiseul-lès-Saulx: covered well, after (9).

Panoramic views of Tarsul and the Ignon valley, between (13) and (14).

Type I ZNIEFF (Site of Natural Interest, Ecological, Faunistic and Floristic Value): Coteau de la Bonière and the Ignon Valley at Courtivron and Tarsul, from (13) to (E).