The loop at a glance

  • Distance: 12.7 km.
  • Time: about 4 hours without breaks.
  • Climb: 516 metres of ascent, between 326 and 773 metres above sea level.
  • Difficulty: medium, with a steep climb through the woods.
  • Start: lower car park, at the entrance to Valon. Yellow waymarks (PR).

The route

From the car park, you first walk up towards the castle and the old village square, a threshing floor paved with schist. You pass between the stone houses, then after the cemetery an old narrow path between two low walls leads down to the D97. A little further down on the left, the viewpoint looks over the Couesques reservoir.

Follow the road for another 750 metres. At the hairpin bend, a small paved road runs off on the level, above the valley. It passes old farms, Missillac and then Guillotet. The Truyère gorges are rarely this close: the river is right there below you, but it stays wild and out of reach between its two dams.

Three hundred metres before the Parlayre farm, the path turns left and tackles the carral, a sunken lane that climbs in tight zigzags through the woods. This is the main effort of the day. You come out under two high-voltage lines, then a farm track leads to Le Fraysse, a hamlet of well-restored houses. After the church and the cemetery, a short detour to the left takes you to the Le Fraysse viewpoint and its orientation table.

The way back crosses the meadows, along old paths lined with low walls, to the Grange de Bars. The last kilometre runs back down to Valon, with the Truyère in front of you.

The short variant

On the hillside road, two paths let you climb straight back to Valon via Le Prat. With this variant, allow about 1 hr 15: enough to see the viewpoint and the upper gorges without the long climb through the woods.

Birds of the gorges

The gorges are a Natura 2000 site for birds. On the way up, look up: the red kite, the booted eagle and the peregrine falcon nest on these slopes. The red kite is the escoufle, the bird that gave its name to the novel and to our cottages.

Our tip

Set off in the morning, with water and good shoes: the carral is steep. Spring and autumn are the best seasons. On very hot days, choose the short variant or the much shorter Coultades trail.