Marsac-sur-Don < > Langon

29.3 km 7h20

Directions :

0.00 - Leave Marsac-sur-Don, Place de L’église, heading right, with your back to the church, onto Rue Charles De Gaulle as far as a little roundabout, where you fork right onto Rue lsaie Rabu. After 250m, keep left, near the school of St Léger, to follow a pedestrian way, to the left of the D124, as far as a tarmac road 650m further on. Take it to the left, before the River Don and go by the area of Moulin du Don or Le Don (signposted). You follow this pleasant tree-lined road for a large part of your itinerary. Take it for a little less than 3.5km as far as the village of La Noë after having gone through the areas of La Réauté after 900m, Le Chesneau 500m further, and La Ville Goué close by. Keep right to continue your Way, which becomes narrower here. The next area is called Launay de Bouin (3.5km).

Pass the areas of Le Souchay and La Noë which adjoin each other and contain very large farms. At 4.5km, at the far side of La Noë, turn right immediately after the signpost indicating the limits of La Noë (Signpost: La Noë). Just after this , the road overlooks the valley of the river Don.

[After about 700m from La Noé, a path on your right leads (there and back 1.3km approx) to Pont-Veix, historic site of one of the battles of Conquereuil. You get to it via the old Roman road, crossing the Don by a remarkable stone construction here. On the other side of the Don, beside the present Château du Pont-Veix, is found the first Manoir du Pont-Veix and the chapel of the château.] Continue on your Way for a little less than 1.4km from La Noë as far as a T-junction, facing a woodland on a hill.

Go to the left and after about 100m, head right, following the GRP, onto an uphill path for 300m to get to – just after having left a grotto on your left – the magnificent clearing where you find...

1h35 06.4 - ... Chapelle des Lieux Saints, a particularly remarkable site whose origin is not really known. It must have been, in olden times, a « frairie » pulling together several surrounding villages. (A frairie is a social and religious organisation which regulated the lives of the inhabitants.) Leave this place taking the stony path heading west (tarmacked at the end) alongside a wood for 500m then veering left to get to the D125 500m away. Continue right for 300m as far as the intersection with the D42, which you follow to the right for 200m before heading to the left onto a stony path 500m long, then turning right onto a tarmac road towards the village of ...

2h15 08.9 - ... Tréguély which you enter turning left. Keep left going through and 700m after having left the village, at the end of the open area, head right (9.6km), following the GRP, onto a downhill forest track. After 300m, enter a clearing and continue for 500m along a wooded sloping path. 300m further, after having passed to the left of a house, come out at a narrow road on a bend. Take the road to the left to pass through the area of « La Vallée » after 400m. Continue on this bendy wooded road to go over a little bridge, after the ruins of a mill, over the overspill stream of...

2h50 11.5 - ... L’Étang de la Vallée. Carry on to cross, after about 150m, on your right a stony parking area at the end of which you climb a sloping path to the right, following the GRP. 150m higher, keep right, then after approx 500m head right – with the GRP – onto a steep path towards the Rocs de Gascaigne, an area of particular richly-diverse flora, and the valley of the river Don 300m lower down. Continue left along the river for about 600m, then along a woodland path as far as the slightly unkempt way in to a race-course/hippodrome on the right, about 300m further. Go around it by the right then go along the Don towards the left to get to a pedestrian overbridge, built on the pillars of an old bridge, 1.2km away. Cross it to arrive, after having continued along Rue du Gand Moulin and admired a lovely lavoir/washhouse on the right at the intersection of Place Simon, facing ...

4h45 14.8 - ... Maison du Tourisme of Guémené-Penfao. Go up to the right opposite, towards the church, taking, after a roundabout, Rue de l’Église. Pass to the left of the church to head, just after a small old garage, onto Rue des Portaux as far as the boundary wall of an old cycle track/ Vélodrome about 250m away. Go through the door in the wall to use a path which goes along inside and then outside this old Vélodrome, now a rugby pitch, as far as a little housing development 200m away. Take Rue Eugène Leblay on the right as far as a stop sign. Cross Rue Taillandier to head onto Rue Nominoë (formerly Rue de la Garenne), slightly to the right opposite you, as far as Avenue de la Garenne, at the end of the road. Follow this avenue to the left for a little more than 100m before taking a walking trail (old railway) for a little less than 2km, which comes out, opposite an old restored signalman’s house, onto a road with a stop sign meeting the D125. Take this D-road to the left, from the stop sign towards the village of...

4h30 18.1 - ... Feuilly. Here take a right onto a tarmac road which passes under an old railway bridge. Continue on this road for 1.2km as far as the D15. Here fork left before turning immediately, after 50m, onto another road in the direction of «Beau Soleil», «Fry» and «Les Ecobuts>>, for 600m, until you get near the area of «Beau Soleil» where your Way forks off to the left. Continue for 3km on this road, leaving the areas of «Haut Méauduc» and «La Saunerie» to your left, till you get to the place called «Les Chatelais» which you go through carefully, leaving the direction of «Beix» to your right, to go left and then immediately right in order to keep going in the same general direction of your walk towards the north. At 500m, at the next intersection, continue to the left. Leave, on bends, the places called « L’Étang», to the right, then « Plaisance », to the left, then go through, for about 300m, keeping to the left, the Quartier «Richebourg » as far as the intersection with a roundabout with the Rue de la Résistance (D46). Fork left to get to the centre of the market town of...

6h15 25.0 - ... Beslé-sur-Vilaine. 25m after the church turn right onto Rue de la Corne de Cerf and continue by Rue de la Duchesse Anne as far as the level crossing on the D15. Leave the Port of Beslé and its campsite on the right to cross the bridge over the Vilaine then go down immediately to the right onto the towpath.

Go along by the right of the mooring place of Pâtis Vert, and continue for 1.8km by the Vilaine to pass under the railway bridge and turn left immediately to go alongside the railway on a farm track, partially grassy in the middle. After 500m, leave a bridge on the left and continue, after having turned right, as far as a tarmac road, 600m away. Take this road to the left for a little less than 400m, before taking a left just after a treatment plant, into a little tunnel under the Rennes-Redon railway. It leads to a path 100m long alongside allottents, which brings you to the little Rue de la Bimais which you take to the right for 180m to arrive opposite the chapel of Ste Agathe, in the centre of ...

5h50 23.6 - ... Langon ; the gîte municipal is several dozen metres further up on Grande Rue, on the left after the church.