Around the Maison du Parc

The Maison du Parc of the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park: an innovative architectural project based on the High Environmental Quality (HQE) approach.

The Maison du Parc Livradois-Forez, the administrative headquarters, blends in through contemporary architecture at the foot of the listed church and the village. The programme followed the HQE approach, High Environmental Quality, reflecting the Park's wish to fit the building into the landscape, to choose local materials, to attend to bioclimatic, acoustic and visual aspects, and to run a “clean” building site that respects the environment. Clad in stone and wood, the Maison spreads along the bank of the Dore, forming a series of terraces. It is made up of several low, semi-buried buildings, stepped along the slope, offset to follow the contours of the terrain and covered with green roofs. The large volume of the Atelier, clad in timber slats and glass, recalls the architecture of the drying lofts of paper mills or old starch factories… A successful dialogue between tradition and modernity, the Maison du Parc, designed by the architect Antoine Bruhat and completed in 2001, illustrates the sustainable development project of the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park.

Start: From the Maison du Parc Livradois-Forez, in Saint-Gervais sous-Meymont, climb up and cross the village. On the way out, take the path up on the left. Leave another one on the left.

1. On a small plateau, bear right towards the houses of La Combe. Go up the D254 to the left for 50 m.

2. Leave the road and go down the path on the right, then climb under the chestnut and hazel trees, on the right, after a stream. Follow the D254 to the right (view over the Dore and the foothills of the Forez: grün de Chignore).

3. At Griolles, go down the path on the right. At the first fork, climb left into the woods, then continue along the edge of the woods.

4. Turn right into Lauphant (well) and go up the little road to the plateau (view over the Forez).

5. After crossing Le Bouchet, go down the little road on the left, then follow the D254 to the right. At the crossroads, take the D259 to the left, towards Olliergues.

6. After 300 m, go up the path on the right behind a farm shed, into the woods. Keep to the same path all the way out of the woods (view over the Dore valley, the Forez and the Chaîne des Puys).

7. At the iron cross, turn right, then immediately left, skirting woods as far as Pradat.

8. In Pradat, go up the path on the left. At the junction, turn left onto the crossing path (view of the Château de Blanchisse). Keep to the same path (view) as far as a little road; follow it straight ahead.

9. Before the first house in Guimoye, go down the path on the right, straight down the slope, into the woods.

10. Cross the D259 to take the path on the left; cobbled in places, through deciduous woods, it passes a stream and some small waterfalls.

11. Take the road on the right. Go straight through Le Constancis and Le Thiaudat. At the fountain, go up the path on the left.

12. Turn onto the crossing path and go down it, on the right. At the Croix des Pouillades, take the road on the left. Coming out of the second bend, go down the grassy path on the right. Back at point 1, in the middle of the meadows, head right and drop down to the Maison du Parc.