Clisson < > Nantes-Chapelle Saint-Jacques

34.6 km 8h35

Directions :

0.00 – Leave Clisson, place St Jacques, taking Rue St Jacques then immediately right onto the small road Ruelle de l’Espinose. Go right, near a small Place, staying with the GRP (which you will be following almost as far as Nantes except around Monnières) onto a small road. Turn right at an intersection with the small road Ruelle du Nid d’Oie to continue going down. 250m from your start, you reach Rue du Nid d’Oie, after having noticed a small statue of St James at the corner of the aforementioned Ruelle. Turn right again to cross the river Sèvre Nantaise.

200m further up, after the bridge, turn left onto Rue de Gervaux; 300m further, after a hotel-restaurant, continue alongside the Sèvre, following the GRP, on a superb walking trail. Go right (don’t follow a PR - waymarked yellow - going alongside the Sèvre.) to end up at the Clisson bypass (D917). Go down to the left for 200 m to pass under the bypass bridge and get to the other side of this D-road; come back up the other side for about the same distance alongside the bypass before taking a footpath to the left (2.2km). After a little more than 1km, you reach the village of...

0h50 3.3km - ... Liveau, with its superb restored mill (flour then paper) (lovely millpond on the river Sèvre). Continue on the tarmac road for 400m to reach, at a stop-sign, the D113. Fork left here to cross, carefully, the bridge over the Sèvre towards Gorges. Just after, turn right onto the D76 towards Monnières, then left after 50m, going up for approx 150m in a vinyard, where you continue along your way to the right and, after 300m, head down a little path alongside a field. Go left towards the following junction, then towards a level-crossing (the Gorges stop of the SNCF railway) which you cross 350m further. Go along to the right of the railway for a little more than 500m until you come across a small tarmac road which you follow to the right to pass under the railway. Continue straight ahead on this road to cross the D76, with care, 40m further along. Keep going straight for 250m before forking left at the end of the tarmac road onto an agricultural access track which becomes a hollow path (chemin creux1) after a bit more than 500m, walk it for 150m. At a wooden barrier, fork left near a farm in the area of...

1h35 6.5 - ... La Motte and continue towards an intersection 150m away, before which you take a right onto a path alongside the railway for 300m. Take a little steps to head left under the railway again, and continue for 100m to get to the D76, which you walk along to the right for 100m (area of La Gravelle) before again turning right onto a gravel path to pass, after another 100m, to the left of a treatment works onto a path which bends left between vinyards and railway. 500m from La Gravelle, you get to a tarmac road, where you cross the railway to the right and continue for 300m along this way bearing left. Before the second bend, head straight ahead onto a farm track which joins another path 400m away, near another railway bridge on the left, which you again must cross over.

Take an immediate right, near a winery, onto a little tarmac road which goes through the village of Les Guerches (8.6km). A bit less than 200m after the winery, fork left onto a grassy path which becomes a track, go through woodland and come out 450m on at the bottom of a hillside vineyard. Go up alongside the vines as far as Croix Giraud, 650m away, where the Way parts from the GRP. Continue straight ahead for approx 200m, to the intersection with Rue Quarterons, and after having kept slightly right go through a carpark behind a school. At the far end, take a little steps and continue straight ahead, leaving a cemetery on your right, along the D76 (Rue de la Mairie) to arrive, after the intersection with the D7, at the centre of...

2h35 10.5 - ... Monnières (Place de l’Église). Go straight ahead on the D76, passing in front of the church (worth visiting). After 50m on this Rue de l’Église, turn right onto the path between the houses. Go along it, turning left as far as the bottom of Rue du Paradis and continue, keeping slightly right. After 150m, on a wide gravel path, leave to your left the entrance to a treatment works to head opposite onto a path which begins with a little steps. About 50m further, at the bottom of a log steps where the Way rejoins the GRP, fork left onto the path which crosses a little wooden bridge. Continue alongside the stream and after about 200m cross a road just after a new house on the left, and continue straight towards the stadium about 100m away. Cross it behind the technical installations leaving a road to your left. At the far end of the stadium, you reach a replica of the Grotto of Lourdes, overlooking the river Sèvre, 350m away. Continue by taking a steps then a path, partially in woodland, which comes out onto a tarmac road after 500m. Take a right for 300m before heading left to go alongside the Sèvre on a very pleasant stretch which leads to the stopping place of...

3h20 13.7 - ... Gué Joubert 1km away. Keep going for a little less than 1km alongside the Sèvre to arrive at a small dip near a road leading to the left towards La Hautière. Take this road for 100m before keeping right to head onto a path towards the area of La Noë des Buttes. Near a house with light green shutters, turn right and go through the village, still keeping right. Come out at a vineyard after 350m. Go alongside it, sometime through woodland, for a little less than 1km, as far as a junction among the vinyards. Take a left, then further along a right and a left to get to the D74, which you cross carefully (16.0km). Continue straight ahead and, after several dozen metres, go up left for about 100m. Here head towards the right along a hillside vineyard for 500m. At the tarmac road, go back up to the left for 400m keeping right alongside the vines as far as the path which goes alongside the D59. Near a Cross, fork slightly left to take the D59 to the right as far as the church of...

4h45 19.0 - ... St-Fiacre-sur-Maine 200m away. Turn left at the back of the church on the D63 (Rue d’Echichens) towards Château-Thébaud. Having passed in front of the Mairie, after 175m, turn left onto Rue Beauséjour which you leave immediately to turn right onto Rue du Champ de Foire then Rue du Coteau, which you go down for 200m before taking Rue des Sports on the right. Keep immediately left to head onto a stony track for a little more than 500m. Go up right towards the D59 which is 200m away, near a Cross. Go right then immediately cross the D-road, with care, to go down a small tarmac road for 200m before keeping left to join a lovely track.

After a little more than 500m the path becomes a small tarmac road entering the village of La Bourchinière which you go straight through (Rue des Ouches) to reach, after a bend, (Rue du Port Sem) the D59. Fork right and keep right on a small tarmac road below (Chemin de la Vallée) towards Port de la Ramée. Continue after the little port by a pedestrian track to join once again the D59. Continue towards the right to cross, with great care, after 100m...

5h35 22.5 - ... bridge Pont de la Ramée over the Sèvre. Several dozen metres further, pass to the left of the road to go down to the Sèvre where you go along, and after a little more than 1km and after having passed a carparking area, the pleasant path bends to the right to go around Institut des Hauts Thébaudières (for visually impaired) by a steep path for 700m. At the top, there is an intersection with a road near a large cherry tree and some vines. Fork left and, after approx 350m, on a bend near an orchard to your left, turn right and keep immediately left to go down and take the footpath on the right towards the village of Ville Bachelier. At the bottom, go left, then immediately right near house No.17. Continue on this path which leaves the Sèvre, passes 700m away under the D105 and goes alongside a racecourse/hippodrome (Chemin du Champ de Courses) near the village of La Haudière. After the hippodrome, the path comes back to the Sèvre and follows it to...

6h55 27.8 - ... Chaussée-aux-Moines, a superb Quartier of Vertou on the banks of the Sèvre towards the village of Chêne, with its lock and bars-restaurants where it is worthwhile to take a break. Continue along the Sèvre on a road which brings you along and then away from the Sèvre, with the area between the road and the river being a floodplain designated ‘a biodiversity protection zone’, for 2km as far as the Rocade de Nantes (Nantes bypass), then 500m further to reach, by road, the Quartier Beautour de Vertou (30.7km). Go past a small recreation area/playground and fork immediately left to continue to follow the Sèvre. 500m further, go under a roadway heading into Nantes (Boulevard de Vendée) then under two other bridges [Pont des Bourdonnières and Pont de la Morinière (32.3km)] just before the sports facilities. Continue by the river and take a wooden overbridge over the Sèvre just before the large buildings of a training centre (Centre de Formation). 500m further leave the riverbank towards the right near a shopping centre and its parking area which you go around via Rue Henri Sellier. Then turn right onto Rue Esnoult des Châtelets. Go through a roundabout then, at a second one, turn right towards...

8h35 34.6 - ... Chapel of Saint Jacques de Pirmil, in the road of the same name, the end of the day’s stage.