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WALK 2

Circuit des Maures

Start point	Parking at the Hôtel de Ville (Mairie) of Le Vigan
Height gain	306m
Difficulty	Easy – some medium steep uphill to start
Time	3hrs 15mins
Maps	Didier & Richard Top 25 2641 ET Mont Aigoual/Le Vigan 1:25,000
How to get there (from Le Vigan)	This walk is from the town itself. Park behind the town hall (Mairie) where there is a lot of space.
Signposting	Excellent – the GR60A goes to the col where it meets the GR60. Continue on the GR60 until you turn down the mountain. There are also wooden posts with PR21 on them and yellow splashes all the way round the walk – you can’t go wrong!

A relatively easy walk up to a low pass above the town of Le Vigan and then along a delightful ridge before dropping down to walk along the river. According to legend, when the Saracen hordes invaded this area at the start of the eighth century and destroyed the town of Le Vigan, they came by way of the Col des Maures (Maures meaning‘moor’in the ancient Occitan language), which is now indicated as Col des Mourèzes on the IGN map.

Le Chevalier d’Assas was born in Le Vigan in 1733 and belonged to a bourgeois family. He became a captain in the Auvergne regiment and died in battle in Hanover at the age of 27. His claim to fame is that when his regiment was ambushed in a wood he led with the fabled battle cry‘A moi Auvergne, ce sont les ennemis’, which has gone down in French history thanks to Voltaire who wrote about the incident in 1768.

(1) Take the road up to the right behind the Mairie called Rue de Mareilles where there are red/white signs of the GR60/60A and yellow splashes. After 5 minutes, at a crossroads, continue straight on the Chemin de Gaujac, which narrows where there is a red/white splash on a wall.

(2) A few metres further on look for another GR splash and a wooden PR21 (PR means petit erandonnée – small walk) post indicating Col de Mourèzes and take a rather overgrown grassy path to the right. It goes up medium steep on an attractive sunken mule track through old stone walls and shady woodland to reach the road again by a small water pumping station (20mins). Cross the road and continue on a stony path upwards through tall bracken and chestnut trees until you reach a jeep track (35mins).

(3) Turn right and then 30m further on turn up left on a narrow path where there are GR and yellow splashes. You get your first open view of tree-covered hills with the three peaks of the Pic d’Anjeau on the skyline. Continue upwards, passing a ruin to the left and walking along the top of old stone terraces which were previously cultivated.

(4) The path rejoins the road going up to the pass (40mins). Turn right (look for markings on a telephone pole). On the second corner after a house, turn up left on another slightly rockier path, which again meets the D170 5 minutes later at the Col de Mourèzes (45mins).

There is a stone here saying that this path is part of the‘sentier André Chamson 1900-1983’, Chamson being well-known as a writer of books about the region. The tourist bureau of Le Vigan inaugurated the stone in 1993. They have created a special Chamson walk from the centre of town to the Serre de la Lusette, which was the subject of one of his books, L’Aigoual, published in 1930, and an area in which the author loved to walk in.

(5) Turn left on the road (avoid a track up left signed DFCI G-43) and go right on a jeep track signposted DFCI G-41 where there are GR signs, a wooden PR21 post and yellow splashes. Keep on this pleasant track, which soon comes to a fork at an open field where there are lovely views; if you look back you can see two antennae on the tops of the tree-covered hills.

(6) Go right; there are crosses on trees left (55mins). The track undulates along the summit through kermes oak and box bushes (avoid path to left) and for a time there is a steep slope to the right.

(7)Careful – when the track turns a corner go straight on a narrower path where there are GR markings and yellow splashes (1hr 5mins). Walk beside an overgrown orchard and then keep straight past a path on the left with a no entry sign. The path narrows as it goes through woodland and open spaces. It gets rockier in places and at one stage there are extended views on both sides and over the outskirts of Le Vigan down on the right. As the landscape opens out the vegetation changes to heather and stunted bushes such as juniper, this change being caused by a geological fold. Keep on the main path, which starts to go down with a crumbling wall initially on the right – there are glimpses of hamlets through the bushes left.

(8) Take the path down right off the ridge (1hr 25mins) where there is a wooden PR21 post and yellow splashes. Here you leave the red/white splashes of the GR60, which continues along the top. The terrain is initially steep and rocky and would be slippery and difficult in wet weather. Crossing some scree, you get your first view of the hamlet of Paillerols, which is perched on a shoulder below. It looks neat and restored with some cultivated terraces. A rivulet appears from nowhere and trickles down the path itself before veering off to the left. Shortly after there is a small building housing a water tank. Continue round the top of a narrow tree-covered ravine and then join another path by a high wall (1hr 40mins).

(9) Go left. (The path straight ahead goes to the hamlet of Paillerols and then down to the road. This is an alternative way back and takes half an hour less: not done by author.)

The path goes along the side of the hill (ignore a fork down right), crossing three rivulets – there are old terraces and walls, remains of cultivation and habitation in the past. It reaches a rocky area where there are open views again and later passes an attractive miniscule pool of water in the rocks.

(10) You reach the top of a rocky shoulder where the path bears round to the right by a wooden PR post (2hrs) – there are magnificent views of the surrounding hills and you can see the valley of the Arre river over on the left. The path leads down the front of the mountain and suddenly reaches a mas (huddle of houses) called les Caumels on the IGN map (2hrs 5mins) – it consists of one big ruin and an unusually tall renovated house. It is quite a shock to cross mown grass, dotted with cherry trees, and you feel an intruder as you walk between the house and the large ruin.

Bridge over the river Arre

(11) Bear to the left at the end of the lawn – there is a yellow splash on a tree (do not go straight where there is a red splash). Wend your way down through chestnut trees and tall bracken. The path becomes a mule track between two defined walls – on the left there is a large area of cleared land. This leads to a jeep track, which looks new and is not marked on the IGN map (this clears up the mystery as to how the people reach their renovated house at les Caumels).

Cross the jeep track and continue on down the mule track (yellow splash on tree) through woodland – you can now see the river Arre down on the left. The path becomes rockier and descends quite steeply through chestnut trees.

(12) Careful, before the path reaches a road it branches to the right in front of a house by an iron post (2hrs 35mins). It goes underneath a bridge where there is a concrete irrigation canal right and reaches the D999.

(13) Turn right on the road (yellow arrow) for about 50m and then bear down left at a wooden PR post. This is a narrow slip road, which goes down and then turns left over a very unusual old arched bridge with a water aqueduct flowing over the top of it. The river beneath looks delightfully cool and clear – there are sandy banks that look as if they make good swimming places for the people in the camping site on the other side.

(14) Turn right on the narrow road after the bridge (2hrs 40mins) and follow this all the way into Le Vigan. It is a pleasant setting with the river on the right and houses with large gardens on the left. There is a delightful old restored mill on the other side of the river by a weir and, further on, a large factory called Well, which makes a popular brand of stocking. Ignore a new bridge to the right and continue straight by another camping site and, further on, a small waterfall where the river seems to be flowing more rapidly. There is a sign saying‘Le Vigan’(3hrs) as the road enters a small industrial site and passes low blocks of flats.

(15) Cross the next bridge by a large supermarket (here the yellow splashes stop). Follow the sign‘Centre ville’and turn right on a bridge over a road. This takes you into the main square with the church up on the left. Turn right down here, continue past the fountain at the end and bear up left. This road passes the statue of the Chevalier d’Assas (see above) and at the top turn left towards the Hôtel de Ville (3hrs 15mins).

For information on Le Vigan see Introduction, ‘Southern Cevennes’.