Park in the dirt car park at Fontaine Gilouse in Eyguières.
Notes: this walk follows unmarked routes. I recommend using the app with GPS enabled.
This hike is strongly discouraged during the hunting season. Live ammunition is used to hunt wild boar on the Roquemartine estate.
(S/E) Take theGR®6opposite the car park; a few hundred metres further on, you will reach a crossroads of paths.
(1) Leave theGR® here and continue along the path opposite. Carry on uphill, then pass under a power line. Join theGR® 6 directly opposite this line.
(2) Turn right here back onto theGR®. Follow another power line and reach the summit of Défends d'Eyguières (marked by an antenna).
(3) Head downhill and at the first junction (where there is a water tank), take a path on the right, under the trees and running parallel to the track, to reach the Calès de Lamanon caves.
(4) From the Calès Caves site, follow the GPS route carefully until you return to the car. Leave theGR® 6 and walk around the Calès Caves cirque, skirting it on the right. Note the following along the way: the statue of the Virgin Mary, the remains of the feudal castle, the watchtower and the orientation table, the remains of the Chapel of Sainte-Marie and Saint Jean, the Chapel of Saint-Denis, and finally the Saint-Denis fountain. From here, head to the Saint-Denis car park.
(5) Turn left onto the track and follow it for about a hundred metres.
(6) Leave the track and turn left onto a path running parallel beneath the trees. After a right-angle bend, rejoin the previous track at a multi-way junction on the D72.
(7) Cross this road and continue straight ahead along the path running alongside the edge of the woods, then through the vineyards. At the hamlet of Notre-Dame, under the power lines, take the path straight ahead towards Château de Roquemartine.
(8) Note: access to the Château de Roquemartine site is strictly prohibited. Until it opens to the public, you must go round the rock and the château at the bottom.
=> Continue along the track. At the bend, take a path on the left towards the D569 road. Follow the track through the grass southwards, parallel to the road, until you reach the crossroads.
- I have left the route that is currently closed in brackets.
(Take a path on the left, passing by an old dovecote. Go round the castle ruins on the left and head down towards Mas du Moulin, passing between the Chapelle Saint Sauveur and the castle. Join the D569).
(9) Cross this road with care, then follow a path alongside the D25. Turn left off the path and make a wide circular loop to arrive directly beneath a high-voltage power line. As you enter the trees, take the path on the left marked with red and white dots. Head straight ahead, climbing through a holm oak wood up an increasingly steep slope to reach the secret cave of Sainte-Cécile. Cross the cave via a narrow passage on the right to emerge onto a ledge (watch out for the drop), then climb towards the ridges of Mont Menu.
(10) Before the summit of Mont Menu, descend via a path more or less clearly marked by cairns, then climb back up alongside the power line. When you reach the electricity pylon, turn left, then descend to the right into the valley. Join the D569 by staying on the track that runs past the waste collection centre.
(11) Carefully walk northwards along the D-road, keeping to the verge, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. Take the track on the right, behind the hotel-restaurant, then climb up a steep path. Once on the ridge, follow it to the right as far as the White Cross.
(12) From there, head down towards the D72, cross it to reach a multi-way junction including theGR® 6.
(13) At the cistern, turn right, continue down the slope, then climb back up to reach the original junction you passed on the way out.
(1) Turn right and retrace your steps along the route you took on the way there to return to the Fontaine Gilouse car park (S/E).
