Meyreuil - Le Terril du Défens

1. Park in the undeveloped car park in front of the Bastide Valbrillant enclosure. Go to the bottom of the Valbrillant valley where there are some picnic tables.
2. Cross the small bridge, climb a few steps: here begins the loop of Le Défends. Take the path that climbs between a field and a row of oak trees. On your left you will see a superb view of the Sainte-Victoire and the Cengle. At the end of the row of trees, continue for 100 m on the right.
3. Here turn left, and take the path that climbs between fields along the Mediterranean-Rhone underground pipeline. You will soon enter a forest of pine and white oak trees.
4. When you reach a forest track, turn right and continue on this black substrate track until the track descends in a bend. It leaves the forest.
5. Leave the track here on the bend for a path ahead. Do not take the path on your left up the hill.
6. After about 50 metres leave this path (Marker: lone white oak on your right), turn right and cross a grassy terrace. Go up a little further, and you will find yourself at the foot of the Défends slag heap, and near a retention basin just ahead of you.
7. Go around the retention basin, skirting its edges. Follow the track along the bottom of the slag heap for about 400m.
8. Turn right onto the wide track that climbs to the top of the slag heap. This track is bordered on the right by a rainwater drainage channel.
9. At the end of the track, you reach a rocky balcony overlooking a valley, which gives you a view of the Etoile chain, the Meyreuil thermal power plant and another slag heap near Gardanne. Leave this viewpoint by continuing the ascent of the slag heap by a path on your left. Do not take the track that runs along the balcony.
10. When you reach the plateau of the slag heap, go past a cistern towards a building that served as an observation point (forest fire prevention) and enjoy an extraordinary view of the Sainte Victoire.
11. 11. Leave the plateau and walk along its edges, keeping the Sainte Victoire on your left. Go down a path for about 100 m to another cistern. From here, follow a balcony track: view of the Sainte Baume and Regagnas massifs (Marker: DFCI post).
12. Further on, 50 m further on, you will come to a crossroads, stay on the track that follows the level. Do not go down either the track on your left or the path on your right. The track leaves the balcony.
13. 13. A few steps further on, at a fork in the road, take the downhill path. After a pleasant descent through a pine and white oak forest, with typical undergrowth, you arrive at a second fork.
14. After 500m, go back to the right for a few dozen metres and then take a small passage to the left which quickly joins a wider path that you descend to the left.
Continue straight on. After a few minutes, you will see the Valbrillant dovecote.
15. Continue until you reach a second fork in the road. Leave the main path and take the path on your left. It takes you directly to the bastide of Valbrillant. Through the trees you can already see its dovecote. The path leaves the forest (Cabanon on your right).
16. Go forward to the entrance of the domain (private property), but before that turn left by taking a passage between fields and trees that runs alongside the small river. A few more steps and you will arrive at your starting point.