Malestroit – Rochefort-en-Terre

4H45 19.0 km

Please note: There is an alternative route (8alt) going from Malestroit to Saint-Jacut-les-Pins (25 km, 6h30). This path which goes via Saint-Congard and Saint-Gravé offers very beautiful viewpoints and an interesting series of windmills during the last kilometre. 

Directions

00.0 – Leave Malestroit from the gîte at lock n° 25. Immediately cross the bridge to get to the west bank of the canal. Pass under a first bridge, then a second stone-built bridge. Follow the towpath, which is asphalted at times and soon bordered by houses. Take a right through a passage between two houses just before a metal pedestrian overbridge. This passage comes out onto a road (attention, danger !). Cross it and go up the road opposite (waymarked GR and Roman way voie romaine). After 300 m, bear left and walk along the path which heads into a wooded area. After 1km, just before the first house, take a left onto a little path which comes out after 200m onto an asphalt road. The chapel of Saint-Marc and its Cross are located slightly to the left. The walk continues to the right on this little road as far as a junction 200m away; turn left. Leave a first dirt track on your right and take the second, also to the right (here you leave the GR). The Roman way stretches on for 1.5km before getting to a junction with three possibilities. Take the right-hand way, and 20m further on, the path which heads left into the woods. Do a good kilometre to get to...

1H20 05.5 – ... Trégoux. Carry on to the left on the paved road which goes through the village in the direction of Saint-Congard. Go down the valley, leaving two dirt tracks to the right. Head onto the third one, also on the right, after 1km. This path crosses two branches of the river La Claie and comes out at Moulin-Lainé. Go up onto the road which, after about 100m, turns right. 50m after the bend, take a path on the left which heads into a woods; at the end of it, after 180m, turn right. Keep left after 300m, then after the same distance again, take a road to the right which you follow for 1.5km as far as the centre of ...

2H15 09.1 – ... Pleucadeuc. Keep to the right after the intersection (with a very beautiful Cross) with the Avenue des Sports, pass by to the left of the church. Turn left at the junction. After 200m, leave the junction towards Molac to the right, and, after a little less than 150m, take a dirt track to the right which heads into fields and then woods. After 1km, reach a path. Follow it turning left, then right 250m further on. The path, fit for vehicles for 300 m becomes a little track as it goes into a wooded area, then comes out among fields. Follow the edge of two fields for 500m. Arrive at a farm track and take it to the left for 700m to arrive at the farm of Maraudière. Here turn right and follow the road as far as the crossing with another road, about 1.2km away, where you continue straight ahead. Go through the area of Berthé ; a little more than 1km further, at the end of the path, turn left and, 350m further, again go left to get to...

4h00 16.0 – ... the chapel of Bon Réconfort (XVI – XIX). Go down the road as far as the bridge which spans the Arz. Head for the village of Quénelet. Immediately after this village, go right onto a path which heads into the woods (GR). Pass by the boules ground (gravelled area for playing boules) and take shortly a left onto the path which goes up the side of a hill. Having reached the summit, bear left in the clearing ; pass in front of a Cross before getting to the D777A (a deviation of Rochefort). Go right, cross the road after 50m, and follow the trace of the old road for 200m. Get back onto the road, and take an immediate left onto a path which heads into the woods and which leads, 500m further on, to the hostel gîte d'étape of Pont-aux-Roux on the left. The path carries on to the right. After 600m and after having begun to go alongside a housing development, take a left onto a path which leads to the chapel of St Roch ; go down to the right to get to the D-road, and go to the left towards the centre of...

4H50 19.5 – ... Rochefort-en-Terre, a little more than 1km away.