La Saunade

Guidebook with maps/step-by-step :

Étape 1 : Place de l’église (church and 17th-century bell) down the main street. After leaving the village, take the first path on the right to join the GR4 at a footbridge over the Saunade.

Étape 2 : Stay on the left bank and walk up the Saunade valley as far as the Chabre mill. Before the bridge, turn right onto the tarmac road, go through the hamlet of Viallevelours and continue as far as the T-junction.

Étape 3 : Turn left and leave the GR4 (cross dedicated to the shepherdess Marie Girodon, view of the Sancy massif). Descend to the Saunade and, at the crossroads, cross it on a small bridge. Go up and through the hamlet of Saunade, then take the first track on the left until it intersects with a small road at the entrance to the village of La Cassière.

Étape 4 : Follow the tarmac road through the village and, 150 m after the last houses, take a track on the left (with a view of the Chaîne des Puys). Go down into the woods, cross a stream and turn left again. At the crossroads in the woods, turn right to reach the hamlet of Les Vialles; cross it and reach a pond. Go back up through the woods to reach a crossroads with five paths.