The best hikes from bus stations around Orléans

At the moment, with summer weather, leaving Combleux and heading up towards Montargis, early in the morning, offers beautiful views of the rising sun...

Between the Loire and the forest, the commune of Mardié is part of the Métropole Orléans Val de Loire, forming its eastern entrance, 12 km from the center of Orléans. With a long history largely marked by viticulture, part of its territory belongs to the Loire Valley section classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Quite vast, the commune has an area of 17.3 km² and stretches for about 12 km from Northwest to Southeast with a width of only 4 to 5 km. The relief is marked only by the slopes that delimit the valleys of the Loire and the river Cens, doubled by the Canal d'Orléans. The altitude is between 100 and 120 m. The landscapes are varied and have a lot of character. "Natural" landscapes with the banks of the Loire, the canal and the Cens valley, vast cultivated areas and very extensive woods. Inhabited landscapes with the town center, clustered around a beautiful Romanesque church, a lively district in Pont-aux-Moines with its small shops, very green and airy residential areas, some important hamlets that have retained traditional rural housing mixed with more recent constructions. The commune benefits from the main services and shops, and is well served by public transport to Orléans. Despite demographic growth, which remains controlled (just under 3000 inhabitants), it has retained a fairly marked rural character and remains, in many respects, a village where life is good.

Very beautiful place along the canal, the smells of spring and the birds, superb!

Nice little place to have a coffee. However, it's €3 for a coffee...

Pleasant street for cycling or walking, but be careful of certain narrow passages and car traffic.

Time has no hold on this place. Let yourself be lulled by the Loire.

As in probably every other profession, there are a few so-called “black sheep” among the many honorable millers in the milling trade. The popular children’s book author Otfried Preußler tells the following short episode in “The Flight into Egypt”: “And they didn’t even get all the way to Klostergrätz that evening, but there was a mill on their way, the monastery mill – they stayed there until the next morning. At first the monastery miller was almost shocked when the k.k. Gendarmerie knocks on his door: There had been a certain dispute with a customer last week over a few sacks of milling material which had disappeared in the mill here in a completely inexplicable way […] but it could have been that he had been reported for it anyway – and now they’re coming to pick him up… then of course all the disputed milling sacks had immediately fallen from his mind, the monastery miller, just as [sergeant] Hawlitschek is now simply asking him for a place to stay for the night.”

Listed as a "Village of Character," Combleux is a picturesque little village in the Loiret region, located at the confluence of the Orléans Canal and the Loire River. Once a busy river port, this village has retained its old-world charm with its cobbled streets, stone houses, and flower gardens. In the heart of Combleux, the Guinguette de l'Écluse brings the canal banks to life every summer, offering a friendly gathering place where guests can sample local produce while enjoying open-air concerts and dance evenings.