Bois d’Oingt to Bois Flachère

Colin and I both really liked the landscapes on our various hikes to Oingt/Saint Laurent d'Oingt, Sainte-Paule, Theizé, and Bagnols/Frontenas, which are in the heart of the Pierres Dorées region.  (If you missed the start of my blog, or want quick review, check out this short video about the Pierres Dorées region.  It's pretty cool to rewatch it, now that we can actually recognize many of the places in the video!)

When I stopped at the Tourist Info Centre in Oingt on the way home from Lyon in June, I bought a little homespun booklet of longer hikes put out by "Les Marcheurs des Pierres Dorées."  

(BTW: This is the same Info Centre on Rue du Puits where I managed to find a new copy of my gite's randonnée map, which I had been methodologically trashing since I arrived.  NEWSFLASH:  I just found a link to the "Rhone Carteguides" that includes which number map covers which area, and a list of places that sell them!!!  Not quite as good as a downloadable electronic version, but the next best thing.. indispensable for your next Rhone area hiking trip!!)  

The little booklet shows a 8.5 km hike from Bois d'Oingt (a town) to Le Bois Flachère (an actual woods). The booklet says that the Bois Flachère is one of the few deciduous forests in Beaujolais, and has several kilometers of paths, including trails for hiking, horseback riding, and specialized trails teaching about trees and other forest species. There are also two ponds, which I am keen to check out.  Plus, the elevation change of the whole hike is only about 190m.

We park in the Parking des Randonneurs on Highway D120 (Rue Jacques Cortay), and walk across the street to the Parking des Randonneurs randonnée signpost. 

It points us back down D120, past the parking lot we just came from (on the right in the first photo, above), to Le Bourg signpost, which is only 0.1km away in the town's main square across from the church.  This is the area where the extensive town Market is held on Tuesday mornings. 

Colin and I had actually stopped in at this Market in May, but I didn't blog it because we didn't hike or really see anything in the town other than the Market.  Here are a couple of photos of the Market from May. Unlike the sad little two-stall Oingt market, it's really worth going to the Bois d'Oingt Market -- it has everything from clothes to household items, from groceries to freshly-made snacks to local beer and wine.  It's blocks long.

Today, back in the same square "sans market," I go over to the church and check the front door, but it is locked.  I do a quick circle around the building, and discover the back of the church is even more spectacular than the front. A sign near the church clarifies that the "Bois d'Oingt" does not mean that this area was once "the woods under the lordship of Oingt," which is often assumed. Rather, it was a forest of boxwood that was cleared by monks from Savigny, and later replaced with vineyards and hemp fields.  Apparently, due to its many crafts and tradespeople, this has been a popular market town for centuries!  Who knew!  No wonder their Market is so good.

We proceed down Highway D39.  There is a fountain at the corner of D39 and Rue Eugène Chermette, but it clearly says the water is not potable. Fortunately, we are at the start of our hike, and our water bottles are filled. A little farther along the road, we pass the governmental buildings (the Mairie and the Maison du Rhone), and that is it: we are out of town.  

At first, we are stuck walking along the Highway D39.  The shoulder on one side is a stone wall, and on the other, roses in bloom.  Very picturesque, but not very safe for pedestrians. Fortunately, we soon arrive at the walking trail, branching off the right side of the road.  We could continue to follow the highway and go through Saint-Paul (not to be confused with Sainte-Paule, which we visited earlier), but we decide it would be more fun to walk along the "Ancienne Voie du Tacot," shown on both our usual hiking map and in the little booklet's map.  Based on the name, I assume it must be some famous ancient route of some kind.  We notice this hiking trail has a red-and-yellow randonnée flag on its pole, but can't help but notice that the sign reads "Chemin de Chanrillon," not "Ancienne Voie du Tacot."  Fortunately, next to the sign advertising a local winery, we notice a small sign with a golden arrow... and there's a picture of a train.  Oh!  Now I get it!  "Voie" de Tacot.  It must be an old rail line!  (The internet tells me it is a 24km trail that runs along the old Beaujolais railway line from Liergues to Sarcey.)

After a short jaunt through fields and vineyards, we arrive at the Chanrion randonnée signpost. It urges us onward along a lightly wooded trail to Legny (population 447).  The trail gets rocky for a bit, then flattens out to a grassy path.  It alternates between light woods and open sky.  On our left, we can see the Highway and Saint Paul, which doesn't look very impressive from here.  Looking straight ahead, we see mostly greenery.  Now, this really looks like it used to be a railroad line. I start thinking about the controversial CP railway line in Vancouver, whose abandoned tracks have been used unofficially by walkers and bikers for over a decade. I'd far prefer it be turned into something like this trail than start running trains again. 

A short wooden post with a red-and-yellow randonnée flag combined with a small picture of a train signals us to simply cross the paved road of  Chemin de Saint Paul, and continue onward on Voie du Tacot.  The scenery stays much the same as the photos above until we reach Margand, just South of Legny.  There, a city sign on the intersection (see centre of photo below) points us uphill towards Le Bourg (the right side of the fork in the photo below).

We pass a couple of nice houses, then some kind of big greenhouse that gets me thinking of the bee warehouses in X-files (don't click the link if you have bee issues! lol). 

We follow the red-and-yellow randonnée flags into the town.  It's kind of a fun game to see all the strange places they pop up: on metal drainpipes, on cement blocks, on wooden posts...

At Highway D31, we encounter the yellow Le Bourg randonnée signpost (on the right), kitty-corner to an old stone cross (on the left). There is an image of Jesus on one side of the cross, and of the Madonna on the other side.  At some point in time, Jesus' legs have broken off.  The inscription has a name and a date: MF Ponchon 1516.  The accompanying sign says no-one knows the identity of MF Ponchon, the cross is certainly older than the octagonal pedestal on which it sits, which has been dated to 1763, and the stone base of probably from the old church that used to be here.  It also notes that two-sided crosses are unique to this Pierre Dorée region.  Past the cross, I can see the town church a little farther along Highway D31. 

On the way to the church we pass a building with a very big door.  "How big?"  you ask?  Big. This church must not be the same "old church" mentioned in the previous sign, because another sign near it claims this one was built in the late 1800s.  A sign near the church says the current church replaced the old church, which dated to 919. There is a a statue of the Virgin holding the baby Jesus above the door. Next to the church is the Legny World War memorial, situated in a charming and well-tended garden. 

Heading down towards Les Ponts Tarrets, we pass the Mairie and soon we are at the city limits. We pass a park and an old pressoir on the left side of the road. 

The road takes a sharp left turn around the park, and near the corner we see a Lavoir down below, so we cut through the park to take a look.  This one is marked "Lavoir Communal Rollin (1907)."  Upon closer inspection, it is much less clean than the Lavoir we saw in Frontenas.  As we turn away from the Lavoir, there seems to be another watery holding area behind us.  This one is filled with weeds and garbage.  There is no way pilgrims are still using these watering holes!

Continuing on Highway D131 out of Legny, we run into a small problem: it takes a blind corner while heading downhill towards the large intersection of Highways D131, D120, and D385. If we walk on the road, surely a car will hit us.  Yet, there seems to be no sidewalk or shoulder.  We decide to clamber over the highway guardrail and duck beneath the blue-and-white caution arrows lining the metre or so "shoulder" that edges a steep dropoff.  Somehow it still seems safer than the road.

At the intersection, there is no randonnée signage whatsoever.  According to the map, the Ponts Tarrets randonnée signpost should be here.  We don't see it.  There also seems to be nowhere to cross the big jumble of highway at the bottom of the hill.   We know we need to go left and head towards town, then turn right to cross the railroad tracks.  We make a mad dash across the busy multiple highways to walk on the grassy shoulder of the opposite side. We can't figure out how hikers are supposed to safely make this crossing. There is a roundabout just as the town begins. At the roundabout, we see the railroad tracks to our right, but still no randonnée signs. We scan the roundabout, but see nothing resembling the randonnée signage anywhere. 

We cross the tracks, and can see a small bridge to take us over the River Azergues. According to the map, there should be another randonnée signpost called Les Grands Ponts just on the other side of the river.  As we approach the bridge, we finally see a little red-and-yellow randonnée flag indicating a right turn on the back of a yield sign on the other side of the road. Since there is nowhere to turn right here, we assume the turn must come after the bridge, which makes sense on our map. We head over.

On the other side of the bridge, there is a road to the right that has been blocked off. We don't see a randonnée sign, but I figure this must be the right way.  Just as I am passing the barrier, I notice the yellow randonnée signpost next to the red roundabout sign.  It is so filthy that it was nearly invisible. 

It points us right, to Les Granges, the next randonnée signpost we need to find, and looking to our right, it seems obvious we must walk on the road.  That is, until we get near the dumpster a few metres past the barrier... another red-and-yellow flag on the wooden pole behind the dumpster tells us we should be making another right hand turn.  The only path we see on our right appears to be the driveway to a house!  Did I say I liked playing this game of "find the randonnée marker"?? I changed my mind!!!

We walk up the "driveway" and as it curves behind the house and heads into the woods, we see it is indeed the right path. We also get a nice view of Legny and its church in the distance. Soon we find ourselves at the Les Granges randonnée signpost, which is located at the parking lot of the Foret Flachère.  Colin groans, "You mean we could have just driven to here and started here?"  I chastise his lack of spirit.

The signpost points us into the forest. We stop off at the public washrooms beside the parking lot before heading in.  On the gravel road, a golden lab waits patiently while its owners play in some kind pétanque tournament.  Boy, these French people love their pétanque!!  There are several groups set up along the path, and we "pardon" our way through all of them.

The path takes us directly into the heart of the forest.  We are supposed to be passing one of the ponds, and we hear children playing, but we cannot seem to locate the pond.  A group of children on some kind of scavenger hunt pop out from a side path, and politely say "Bonjour."  I've noticed that every child we have met in France has politely said "Bonjour" to us.  I'd be surprised if that happened in Canada.  We are soon at the La Pecherie signpost, which directs us to our next stop: La Contardière.

Perhaps more importantly, this route will take us past the next pond.  We soon see what seems to be a tiny bridge on the path.  It turns out to be merely a guardrail. So that people don't fall into this teeny tiny disappointing pond.  On the other side of the pond, we see another group of kids who also look like they are on a scavenger hunt.  This thing is getting out of control!!  ;)

We stop to admire a Cedar Atlantica which came to France from North Africa in 1850. There is also a sign describing the life cycle of a tree and all the species who rely on it. A few metres later, there is another sign telling us what becomes of trees in Beaujolais (apparently, firewood, paper products and construction and furniture).  I guess we are on the botanical trail now.

Suddenly we are out of the forest, seemingly in the backyard of a house.  We must have missed the La Contardière signpost.  No longer deterred by paths that seem to be private property (because they often aren't), we forge ahead.  Not long after, we are beside a large field of grain.

From here we can see where we'll end up, crossing the Azergues again.  A little ahead, we see the next randonnée signpost, La Genetiere, which directs us to turn right onto Highway D39 and cross the river, as we expect.  Just past the river, we can see the lake on the right, but we can't see how to get to it.  Next, we pass the "décheterie," which seems easy to get to but unlike the lake, we have no reason to want to go there.

Just as we are about to cross the railroad tracks, an unusual looking piece of construction machinery heads towards us.  With no room for error, we beat it down the tracks a little to give the machine a wide berth.

On the other side of Highway D385, we head up the Chemin des Grandes Cotés, which is again a nerve-wracking experience of heading up a busy blind turn with no shoulder.  As many cars continue to race by us, we end up walking in the deep ditch on the left of the road.  The road heads uphill and just keeps going uphill.  It's like the entirety of the hike's 190m elevation change is right here on this road.  I am soon dripping in sweat and we guzzle down the end of our water.

Soon the road name changes to Les Ifs, then Chemin de la Font Perou, then Rue Favre Bully, then Rue Dr Burdet, as we head into Bois d'Oingt.

While I pause to admire a neat door at the corner of Rue Eugène Chermette, Colin is already inside the bakery behind me, loading up on croissants for future breakfasts (gotta get them when you can--you never know when the bakery will be randomly closed!)  I run in after him and see the perfect medication for what ails me...  ;)

We turn left onto Rue Eugène Chermette, and soon we are back in the town's main square with the church. We jaunt around Auberge Gourmande restaurant and head down Highway D120 about a block to the camionette.