Country:
District:
Once in Félines-Termenès, park on Place de la République, where you will find a car park, the church, the town hall and the school.
(S/E) Walk past the town hall on the right, taking the main road: stay on the left-hand side to use the pavement. Continue to the crossroads at the village exit (car scrapyard) and walk past a small concrete platform a few metres long.
Blue markings
(1) Turn right onto a grassy path that is difficult to spot as it is so overgrown. Cross the ford over the Ognon and you will reach a crossroads opposite a magnificent dry stone wall. Turn left and you will come to a wider path, which you should follow straight ahead. At the next three-way junction, marked by a pretty solitary pine tree, keep left uphill and follow the wide stony path to the road leading to Camplong (D12E8).
(2) Turn left and follow this road carefully, keeping to the left-hand side (there is no hard shoulder). Once in the village, turn left at the stop sign and continue along a remarkable embankment planted with prickly pears and aloes.
(3) Immediately afterwards, turn right at the "Chemin du Barrage" sign. The tarmac road quickly turns into a stony track suitable for vehicles, which climbs up the Ognon valley and then crosses it via a bridge.
(4) At the fork, turn right. Pass a few unkempt vineyards on your right. Ignore a path leading off to the left, keep right at the fork a few dozen metres further on and continue.
(5) Turn left. After passing some beehives on your right and with a building opposite on your right in view, leave the track and turn left. Ford the Ognon and begin a steady, sustained climb.
(6) Negotiate the hairpin bend to the right, staying on the path you have been following, and continue climbing. Turn left at the next crossroads and walk alongside a vineyard. Keep left at the first fork and then take the hairpin bend to the right with the pretty hamlet of Abeuradou in your sights. Leave the houses on your right and continue to the last building.
(7) Turn right onto a path and continue uphill until you reach a three-way junction. Turn right, then right again a few metres further on and continue to the next fork.
Blue markings + Yellow PR® markings
(8) Turn right, pass the buildings of the Bel Soleil wine estate and reach a crossroads. Continue to the right, following the markings (IGN map is incorrect here) and reach the ruins of Ventajou (orientation table; there is a bench where you can stop for a break or a picnic).
Exceptional panorama: in the foreground, the Carcassonne plain; in the middle ground, the Corbières with the recognisable silhouette of Mont Tauch; in the background, the Pyrenees mountain range with landmarks such as Canigou, Montcalm, Pique d'Estats and, further west, Mont Valier and the peaks of Couserans.
(9) Turn back a few dozen metres, then take a narrow path on the left, following the double signposting.
Yellow PR® markings
Leave the blue markings at the junction near elevation 517 and continue to the right until the next fork. The latter is marked by two wooden signs in such poor condition that it is difficult to decipher the information on them.
(10) Turn left and follow the contour line , enjoying magnificent views of the Pyrenees along the way. You will come to a crossroads marked by a large cairn.
(11) Turn left and continue for about a hundred metres to see the Planette dolmen, which is in fairly poor condition. Turn back to the cairn.
No markings
(11) Follow the path on the left, which is less well marked than the previous one but leads safely to the junction with a well-marked double trail (cairn).
Yellow PR® markings
Turn left. Further on, don't miss the path on the right that leads into the undergrowth and first takes you to the stone apiaries and then to the old Planette marble quarry (information board).
(12) Continue along the path, which further on rejoins the double trail abandoned for the detour, and take it on the right. Further on (elevation 505), keep left and begin the descent that leads to the Matte crossroads (directional signpost).
(13) Turn right and continue to a ruin on the right-hand side of a bend.
(14) Turn left (the change of direction is not very obvious). The path leads to the old Castillou marble quarry, which is overgrown with vegetation. It then joins the path you have just left, which you should take on the left. Continue to the next intersection marked by a signpost.
(15) Take the narrow path on the left, which begins a steep descent (do not follow either of the two directions indicated by the signpost). Pass by the old Escaliers marble quarry (marked by a sign) and continue down the increasingly steep path until you reach a wide carriageway (directional signpost).
Blue + PR® Yellow markings
(16) Turn left and continue until you reach the small information sign for the Grotte du Cubitus. Leave the road and turn left onto the path that leads to it: a head torch is necessary if you want to visit the cave.
(17) Turn back, continue to the left and then keep left at the three-way junction at elevation 306.
No markings
(18) Ignore the double markings on the left and continue straight ahead, crossing a magnificent pine forest on almost flat ground. You will come to a marked path.
Yellow PR® markings
Follow it to the right. Pass water tank 272, ignoring the DFCI on the left, and reach the crossroads a few metres after the next water tank.
(19) Leave the tracks on the right and left and take the wide grassy path opposite, at the point where there is a sign prohibiting motor vehicles. After the houses in Brama, this wide path becomes gravel and then continues flat for a long way, making wide curves before starting the descent that leads to a small tarmac road.
Yellow PR® markings + blue markings
(20) Turn right and follow this quiet road towards Félines-Minervois.
(21) Turn left at the first houses, then left again a hundred metres further on. Cross the small metal footbridge over the Ognon and return to the car park.
Visorando member
Easy 
Moderate 
