Tournoël

Guidebook with maps/step-by-step

Step 1 : Opposite the start sign, turn right onto the path alongside the inn (below, the Volvic water bottling plant). Continue along the tree-lined path. Cross a clearing (former quarry) and continue straight ahead for approx. 300 m until you reach an intersection (wooden barrier).

Step 2 : Take the path opposite for approx. 40 m and, before entering the undergrowth, turn right onto a path. After a steep climb through the forest (with views of the Volvic impluvium, the Chaine des Puys, the Gergovie plateau and the Forez and Bourbonnais mountains), descend the steep path until it joins a wide track.

Step 3 : Climb to the right, then, after a few meters on a level surface between enclosed meadows, turn left onto the first track. Leave a track on your left and continue to a T-junction.

Step 4 : Turn right (180° view : Plateau de Gergovie, Limagne, Livradois, Monts du Forez). Ignore a path to the left and, 50 m further on, leave the path to take a 20 m path on the right through the broom, then take the path on the left (plunging view of Tournoël castle). At a fork, turn left down a steep path winding through the undergrowth, until you come to a junction of several paths. Take the one descending opposite. At a fork in the road, take the right-hand path, cross a new path and continue straight ahead (very steep slope) before finding another path. Turn left and keep to this path, which descends and, after a ford, follows the stream to a stone bridge.