Circuit des Chaumes

A circuit offering a beautiful variety of landscapes: the Charente valley, the Chaumes Boissières forest with its holm oaks (Natura 2000 area), the Romanesque church of Saint Martin... You can also enjoy the banks of the river Charente. (D/A) Start from the car park of the town hall / Post Office of Graves-Saint-Amant. Join the intersection then turn right onto rue du petit pont (D155), opposite the level crossing. Follow the rue du petit pont, continue on your left and then straight on until you reach the crossroads. (1) Turn right onto route des Sablières (towards Chez Galopeau). Continue along route des Sablières until you reach a house with red and white wooden cladding. (2) Turn left, opposite this house, to follow a small grassy path around the back of the houses. Continue along the path which bends left through a small wood, then straight on through the vines. (3) Between two plots of vines, turn right to follow a grassy path for about 100 metres. (4) Then turn left to take a tarmac road. Go straight on, then at the intersection turn left and continue on the road to the large meadow, skirting a large building on your left. Continue straight on, crossing a small bridge over a river. Cross the poplar grove and continue straight on the white road. (5) At the intersection of the paths, turn left and continue straight ahead through the fields until you reach the tarmac road. Turn right and walk along the roadside (D155). (6) After a few hundred metres on the road, take the first white track on the left of the electricity pole, towards the Juac lock. At the end of the path, continue on your left along the river. Pass the Juac lock, the barrier and continue straight on along the river bank. (7) Pass a second barrier to find a white road with a view of the church of Saint Martin de Graves-Saint-Amant, built in the 12th and 15th centuries and classified as a historical monument. (8) Turn left, opposite the halte fluviale and the picnic area, to go up the rue du fleuve, past the church of Saint Martin and straight on until you reach an intersection. Turn left and continue straight on the route des Graves, passing over a stream, to the hamlet of Les Aireaux. (9) After passing the Maison Brillet on your left, take the first right, rue des aireaux, and continue straight on. Pass the bridge over the railway, go straight on until you reach the crossroads. Turn right onto the D154 and then left just after the old municipal school. Go straight on, through the hamlet "la Nattie" and continue straight on the white track. Follow this path, passing a grove on your left, then some vineyards. (10) At the end of this path, turn right and then left to go round an old farmhouse. Go straight on for a few hundred metres, then, at the crossroads of a white road, turn left. Go straight on for a kilometre through the vineyards until you reach an X intersection. (11) Take a sharp right (hairpin), go up the small road, right angle on the left, to enter the hamlet "Chez Maurin". Continue straight on, crossing the D10 road (be careful, this road is very busy) to join the rue de la fontaine. (12) Pass the houses and then take the first white path on the left. Continue straight on through the vineyards to go up towards the Gatineau wood. Continue straight ahead to enter and cross the holm oak wood for 1km. (13) At the end, at the crossroads, turn left at a right angle. Go straight on for 400m along a private estate then turn left. Go straight on the path which runs alongside old limestone quarries. Leave the wood and go straight on until you reach the D10 road. Cross it with care and head opposite on a small tarmac road. Continue for 400m then turn right, just after the glass container, towards "Chez Brisson". (14) At the entrance to the hamlet of "Chez Brisson", turn left and then left again and follow the road to a white track. Continue straight on to the end of this path lined with vines. (15) Once you reach the tarmac road (D154), turn left, walk a few hundred metres and then turn right at the stop sign. Continue straight on, pass the level crossing, then turn right to arrive at the starting point (D/A), place de la Mairie.