Hiking route "the Riez path"

It was the path of the peasants who left with their herds to the great market of Riez; it was also the path of the armies, which is kept in the municipal archives. Here the ONF acts in consultation with the municipality. Ideas are presented (moreover Philippe Favre, our forest ranger has some very good ones), the work is done by the ONF but on order of the town hall and of course with municipal funding.

For several years this path had been unused and had been invaded by uncontrolled vegetation. Only the beginning of this path had been passable for several decades, as oil exploration had been launched at the time in Castellet. A road, known today as the Oil Route, had been traced from this ravine and left it further to head southwest before reaching the Brusse plateau. The ONF therefore cut, pruned, cleared, in short restored the area to find the entire route of this Riez path
The easiest way to do this walk is to park your vehicle in the center of the village (Place du Barri or Vallon de la Fouent car park) at point number 1 on the map. You will then take the "detour" (D12) heading east. Although marked in blue, the course of the Rancure torrent has been completely dry for several years and appears as a bed of pebbles. You follow it for 200 meters before discovering, on the right, the start of the path (point number 2).

We then take this path which opens into vegetation composed mainly of white oaks and holm oaks, pines, juniper berries and broom. After 250 meters, don't miss the left turnoff, which is not easy to locate (point number 3). Indeed, no markings are visible on the ground or on the trees. However, after ten meters on this path, we find a small line of orange paint on a shrub. So it's definitely there! We can also spot a Montpellier maple on the left.

All that remains is to begin the climb to the top of the plateau. We continue for a very short while (another 200 meters or so) parallel to the path we just left, still at the bottom of this Borie ravine. We then notice on the ground a pebble bearing an orange arrow (point number 4) which materializes the continuation of the route by a first hairpin bend. We then leave the bottom of the ravine to climb its side.

The vegetation does not change, but in spring the ground is covered in places with all kinds of flowers, violets and sometimes wild orchids.

As we turn around, we begin to discover a beautiful viewpoint over the valley and the village of Castellet (point number 5 on the map). Due to the route along the hillside, we maintain a bird's eye view on the right side all along the path, which allows us to constantly observe the panorama from higher and higher as we progress.

We can now see, still on the right, some very pretty erosion-induced gullies on the western flank of the Bories ravine. This creates a kind of small cliff of puddingstone conglomerate above which the trees seem precariously balanced. A few more meters and the recently redeveloped section of this path ends. We climb a very small earthen mound (point number 6) and join the path that had previously been reconditioned to lead to an olive grove on the Bois de Roux.

Up to this point, from point number 2, that is to say from the start of the trail, we have covered some 1250 meters with a difference in altitude of 167 meters, or a gradient of approximately 13,5%. The rest is easier since in addition to 600 meters of travel we will barely rise ten meters. We will then be, after 1800 meters of travel, at the crossroads with the PR which crisscrosses the plateau and makes the grand tour of the places called Coguille, Lebret, Codaret, Moisson, Valbonnette, and the Colombier. All that remains is to go back down towards Le Castellet either by taking a fork in the PR passing by the ruins of Brusse and Ville-Vieille, or by taking the paved road of the Chemin du Colombier, longer, but easier. By choosing the latter option we will have made a loop of nearly 5,5 kilometers.

Type : Round trip

Distance : 1.8km

Elevation : 167m

Duration : 50 min

Average altitude : 555m

Max altitude : 643m