On a sunny afternoon in November, we did the Tour du Grès walk from Sainte Jalle. The autumn colours were gorgeous, it was about 18 degrees and the sky was bright blue. Ideal conditions for this beautiful walk.

According to the route map (available in the gîte), it would be a walk of medium difficulty. The walk is well manageable, with the climb generally not too steep. But walking poles may come in handy for the bits of steep descent.

Sainte Jalle, starting point of the Tour du Grès walk

From Mirabel-aux-Baronnies, there are 2 ways to drive to the starting point of the Tour du Grès walk from Sainte Jalle:

• via the Col de la Croix Rouge – a beautiful route on a narrow, twisty road. This route is 26 km and takes about 40 minutes
• a beautiful route through the Eygues valley on a wider road. This route is 25.4 km and takes about 30 minutes.

From the village of Les Pilles onwards, the routes are otherwise the same.

Arriving in Sainte Jalle, you can park on the right side of the road. Just before bar restaurant Ô Bistrot Des Lavandes, where you can have a drink and/or something to eat afterwards.

Start of the walk

Between the car park and the restaurant is a metal bridge. Cross this to start the walk. Turn right immediately after the bridge. You walk past a disused lavender distillery and then cross a stone bridge.

In front of you you see the Domaine du Rieu Frais wine estate. Turn left immediately after that bridge and before the wine estate. Follow this small road until you reach Vallon du Rieu Frais (altitude 430m). This point indicated on a pole on the left side of the road.

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Zig-zagging upwards

At this point, turn sharp right and start a long climb. You keep following, while zigzagging, the wide path upwards. The gradient is not too steep, only at the end of the climb it gets a bit steeper.

When the climb levels off, go straight on onto a little track. This track bends immediately to the left and from there also goes up steeply for a while. You follow this track, which is rather winding, until you reach a point where the track widens. Do not go straight ahead here, but turn left onto another narrow track. You descend straight down the mountainside here, fairly steeply.

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Follow this track until you come to a post on which Le Moulin is signposted to the left and Sierry to the right. This is the Col d’Onglon. Take the small track to the left here; frankly, the start looks more like a carved, dry stream. In any case, do not take the little track sharply to the left. Then you end up climbing back to where you came from!

Follow this track until you come to a small road. Turn left there and follow the road all the way back to Sainte Jalle. You pass the point where you turned right on the way up to start the hairpin climb and you also pass the wine estate again.

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The Tour du Grès walk from Sainte Jalle is 8 km and has 420 metres of climbing.

Tour du Grès walk from Sainte Jalle op AllTrails

You can also view the walk on AllTrails. Curious about other walks near our gîte? You will find them on this page.