At La Mouchère

Walking is for us a special activity, satisfying whether alone or shared. Some guests come equipped with binoculars for birdwatching or a camera, or even, occasionally, a sketchbook.

There are a number of possible walks in the grounds, taking in the woods, the valley and the river. They pass hydraulic works dating from the industrial revolution (the ram in the valley, water tower and the canal above the old mill) as well as what were once the ‘subsistence’ gardens : the kitchen garden with its box hedges and greenhouse, the walled orchards with their fruitstore…

In the summer croquet can be played on the south lawn or pétanque on the terrace or in the courtyard. If you stay indoors there is a chest full of jeux de société for adults and children alike. In season you can take part in informal ‘garden to table’ workshops : picking fruit and preparing jams, chutneys, compotes or liqueurs.

Randonnée avec Visorando

Exit La Mouchère, either via the courtyard (recommended route) or through the car park (but watch out for stinging nettles).
Join the road and turn left after the farm along a tractor track which leads north across a wide flat field.
Follow the track until you reach a holloway between hedges.
Turn left into the holloway and follow it down as far as l’Arpent (a small gamekeeper’s cottage).
Keep ahead, passing l’Arpent on your left; in dry weather you can then cut across the meadow on your left towards a road bridge; otherwise stay on the path until you reach the road and then turn left.
After the road bridge turn left to follow the river along the valley for about 1km (watch out for brambles).
When you reach two Lombardy poplars you can either:
take the footbridge on your left and walk back up to La Mouchère
or continue along the river as far as the waterfall,
rejoining the road and turning left to pass the old mill; then turn left into the meadow from which you can see La Mouchère.

Randonnée avec Visorando

Leave the house by the terrace and cross the south lawn in the direction of the village and church spire. Pass into the orchard/meadow and keep on down the slope.
Depending on the state of the vegetation you can either:
exit the meadow by the gate and turn right onto the road, passing the Mill on your right;
or take the narrow bridge which separates the river Chauveau from the old reservoir and climb down the abandoned terraced garden towards the mill.
Bearing right along an overgrown path you reach the waterfall.
Leave the mill by turning right along the road which crosses the river and turn right again into a meadow. Still keeping right, follow the river bank as far as an old lavoir. As you pass it take care to keep your feet dry without leaning on the rather rickety drystone wall.
Follow the river as far as two tall Lombardy poplars; turn right between them and cross the bridge into the old orchard; climb up though the two walled orchards, passing a nineteenth century fruitstore on your left, and continuing up the brick staircase between the lime trees and back to La Mouchère.