The Sentier du Facteur into the Cirque de Navacelles

From the Baume Auriol car park, beside the belvédère that looks over the Cirque de Navacelles, the Sentier du Facteur follows the path a postman used every day, until the 1970s, to carry the mail from the plateau down to the hamlet of Navacelles at the bottom of the canyon. It drops about 280 m along the side of the gorge, with the meander of the Vis and the limestone cliffs opening out below, to the hamlet and the bridge over the Vis. The way back is the same path.

It is 4.1 km there and back with 283 m of ascent, all of it on the way back; allow about 2 hours. The grade is Moderate: the Hérault tourist board rates the path easy at 2 km and 45 minutes one way, but warns of a technical descent; the Grand Site's own map gives the ascent by this path as 2 km, 45 minutes, +320 m, difficulty '++' (its scale runs from + to +++), and the climb out of the canyon is steep.

The Grand Site warns that the weather can turn (heatwave, storms) and asks walkers to bring good shoes, water and sun protection. Some paths here run close to the edge of the cliffs and cross scree, and the paths from the belvédères down to the hamlet can give vertigo. Its code of conduct asks walkers to keep to the marked paths, keep dogs on a lead and close the gates on paths across pasture. The Grand Site says that a prefectoral fire-risk order closes the whole cirque (see the notice). In a notice of October 2024 the tourist board shows its longer loop through the gorge as closed after a collapse, and says the Sentier du Facteur remains passable; the board's page for the Sentier du Facteur itself carries no closure notice.

Park at the Baume Auriol car park by the belvédère: the Grand Site advises parking at the belvédères on spring weekends and in summer, and says parking in the hamlet is charged from 1 April to 31 October. The tourist board says free shuttles can bring you back up from the hamlet in summer; the Grand Site says free shuttles run in the tourist season and puts the dates on its practical-information page. The Grand Site also lists a summer bus from Lodève: look up its timetable before relying on it.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.