The Moutiers pond

(D/A) With your back to the church, go down to the right, past the wash-house. At the crossroads, turn left.

(1) Take the left-hand path under the forest canopy. Cross the ford over the Loing and walk up to the first houses.

(2) Just before the tarmac, turn left at the railway, then left again. Continue to the next road, keeping the railway line on your right at all times.

(3) Carefully cross the RD85. Follow the railway line on the right. Cross the Cobaty bridge over the Loing and enjoy your first view of the pond. Shortly after the bridge, turn right and walk along the bank. You will come to a dike. Turn right onto the tarmac road.

(4) At the end of the dyke, turn right and then left onto the lane, keeping the lane on your left. You will come to a side road.

(5) Cross the road and enter the track. In wet weather, this part of the path can be slippery, and there are several springs along this sunken path. When you reach the road, turn right.

(6) After passing the last houses in Les Boulmiers, turn left onto the path (greenhouses on the right). When you reach Les Michauts, return to the road.

(7) Leave the road on the right to take the road serving this hamlet for a few metres and leave it for a track on the left.

(8) At the Stop sign, turn right, cross the RD85 by the pedestrian crossing and go up Rue de la Gerbaude on the left-hand pavement. Turn left into Rue Derrière les Murs.

(9) Turn right and head towards the Place du Marché, passing under the porch. Continue straight on into Rue de la Roche.

(10) Go down Rue Colette. Leave the church on your left. Carefully cross the RD955 and then the railway line.

(11) Turn right into Chemin du Petit Moulin, which initially runs alongside the railway line. Pass the pumping station, then cross the Loing on a modest bridge. Leave a track on the right.

(12) Turn left. After about 150 m, the window in the hedge offers a wide view of the houses tumbling down the hill, as Colette wrote. Join a tarmac lane and climb to the right for around 100 metres to enter an arch formed by the side hedges. At the first track, turn right to reach Les Cagnats.

(13) Turn right, follow the road and enter the next track on the left. At the first crow's feet, turn right, then right again at the second crow's feet. Go downhill parallel to the hedge bordering a field. After the first houses, turn left and then right. Follow the road past the Jolivets spring and fountain. Then turn right downhill to reach the village of Moutiers, passing the porch of the church (D/A).