The Pedlar of the Jasseries

Jas or jasserie?

The etymology of these two terms comes from the Latin “jacere” meaning to lie down. The jasserie is the place where animals “lie down” to spend the night. The etymology is said to be the same for the verb gésir (to lie) and the hare's lair. It is now accepted that the term "jasserie" refers to the building. However, for others, and more precisely, the jas is the building and the jasserie is the hamlet or group of jas.

Start: park in the car park below Col des Supeyres. At the end of the car park, going up towards the pass, turn right after a small pond, then immediately left onto a track that runs alongside the road and leads to the first lectern (1st stop). Climb straight ahead, the D track turns to the right. At the next two Y-junctions, take the track on the right; it bends gently to the right.

1. At the edge of the beechwood, take the sunken lane that goes down on the left. At the junction, go down the track on the left; it passes beside jasseries before coming out at the jasseries of Les Supeyres (2nd stop). Carry on along this track.

2. At the 3rd stop, the paved track climbs steeply to another jasserie. Follow the main track, then go past a renovated jasserie. Pass to the right of a basin and take a grassy path heading towards another jasserie. Turn right just 20 m before it. Rejoin a bigger track on the left and leave it after 100 m to turn onto a grassy track on the right, across the moorland. It heads for the tip of a spruce wood.

3. At the Pialoux manorial boundary stone (lectern), follow the edge of the spruce wood on your right, then cross a good track. 200 m after the 4th stop, go down the grassy track on the left.

4. Where the streams meet, take a path on the left, before joining a clearer track which you take to the right. It makes a bend and runs along the Bois de Balayoux on the left (follow the diversion in summer to avoid the herds), then gradually moves away from it. You come to the 5th stop.

5. At the junction, take a good track on the right. At the second bend, keep straight on along the grassy track. The 6th stop is just after the ruin. Go down to the right level with the jasserie, still on a grassy track. Cross a stream and continue along the sunken lane: you go past behind another jasserie.

6. Climb back up on the left to the Grand Genevrier jasseries. Cross the hamlet and reach the 7th stop.

7. At the car park at Grand Genevrier, go up the D106 on the left. 10 m further on, take a small path running alongside the road for 450 m, then turn onto the track on the left and go 120 m.

8. Climb to the right on the first grassy track that enters undergrowth, then cross a moor straight ahead.

9. Follow the D106 to the left. Stay on this road all the way to the pass.