Bonnevaux-le-Prieuré walks

Starting from the bell tower of the old medieval priory, you will cross the cool Brême valley so often painted by Courbet. Then you will climb through a beautiful fir forest sheltered by stunning rocks, passing large boulders detached from the cliffs, towards the Grand viewpoint overlooking the upper Loue valley, Ornans and the Val de Scey. Continuing towards the Fontaine aux Vipères and then the castle overlooking the town, you will descend into the valley via a picturesque mule track.

Starting from the bell tower of the old medieval priory, you will cross the cool Brême valley, so often painted by Courbet. You will climb up to the Saut du Chevalier viewpoint to reach the Vierge de la Roche du Mont, continuing along the cornices towards the Roche des Pins and its views over the Loue valley. You will climb up to the Septfontaine plateau and its views of the Jura mountains, before finally descending towards the Brême via a picturesque mule track.

Starting from the bell tower of the former medieval priory, you will cross the cool Brème valley, so often painted by Courbet. Then, climbing back up to the Saut du Chevalier viewpoint, you will descend into the valley via a picturesque mule track.

Starting from Ornans Castle overlooking the old town, after a detour to the Fontaine des Vipères, a meeting place for gossips in Courbet's time, you will walk along the superb line of cornices indented with small recesses and dotted with numerous viewpoints overlooking the upper and lower Loue valley. A round trip that will not exhaust all the attractions of this walk.

From the site of the former castle of Ornans, which overlooks the old town, the route climbs towards the pastures offering beautiful views of the upper Loue valley and Mont Poupet. The return journey takes you along cool, pleasant forest paths to La Roche du Grand, a viewpoint overlooking the lower Loue valley, then to the Fontaine aux Vipères, where you can still hear the gossip of our Franche-Comté "cancouaines" (local women).

There is a short climb to the Roche Bottine, immortalised by Courbet in his painting "La Vallée de la Loue par temps d'orage" (The Loue Valley in Stormy Weather). Its unusual shape, reminiscent of an old boot standing on the edge of a precipice, gave it its name. This viewpoint offers a 180° panorama of Ornans, the Vierge de la Roche du Mont, and the upper and lower reaches of the Loue Valley. Along the way, you will discover the Roche Lahier viewpoint, a natural viewpoint overlooking the upper reaches of the Loue Valley towards Montgesoye.

The Loue Valley, an inexhaustible source of hiking opportunities, offers the rugged, wild charm of its rocks, ending more peacefully at the Saut du Chevalier waterfall in the cool Brême Valley, so often painted by Courbet.

This circuit will allow you to discover the setting of our small Franche-Comté town from three viewpoints: the Belvédère de Notre Dame du Mont, the Château d'Ornans and the Château du Grand, offering sweeping views of the Loue valley. This is a major site on the Courbet Trail, thanks to the famous 1855 painting Le Château d'Ornans, an oil on canvas kept at the Minneapolis Museum. You will discover the Fontaine aux Vipères (Viper Fountain), which still echoes with the gossip of our cancouaines (local women).

Set off to explore the mountains of Franche-Comté, accompanied by the murmur of our cool streams which, if you know how to listen, will tell you many forgotten stories. Discover the vegetation petrified by our limestone waters and the coolness of secret caves nestled in the wild greenery.

Walking along the banks of the emerald-green Brême, you will enter a dense forest until you reach the Ravin du Puits Noir, a dark, hidden, impenetrable and wild place where Gustave Courbet set up his easel more than fifty times. You will emerge at La Gouille, where goats once drank, and return peacefully via the old Tacot road and its viaduct, passing by the Puits de la Brême, the entrance to the underworld or the crystal palace of the fairies.

From a beautiful pine forest, sheltered by beautiful rocks and crossing large boulders detached from the cliffs, you will arrive at the Belvédère de la Roche du Grand viewpoint at the head of the valley, overlooking Ornans and the Val de Scey. Continuing towards the Fontaine aux Vipères, where Courbet's cancan dancers once performed, then to the castle overlooking the town, you will return through meadows overlooking the upper Loue valley, finally descending into the Brême valley through a beautiful, light-filled rocky forest.

Following in the footsteps of Gustave Courbet, the Ravin du Puits Noir was one of the painter's favourite places. You will follow the course of the Brême, walk peacefully along the old Tacot road, climb the Roche du Tourbillon for superb views of the picturesque and steep-sided Brême valley, and finally end at the Prieuré de Bonnevaux, of which only a charming chapel and its 12th-century bell tower remain.

At the end of a wild valley, you will discover the Saut de Bonneille, located less than a kilometre from Courbet's father's farm in Flagey. This exceptional site caught the painter's eye in 1875. The tufa, a deposit of limestone, forms a conical mass surrounded by a plume of foam during periods of high water. Return via the Chassagne plateau and the Monts d'Ornans viewpoint.

Three viewpoints allow you to discover the Ornans mountains from the left bank of the Loue, Mont d'Ornans, Roche Thiébaut and Grand Barmaud, before returning to the valley by winding your way through La Facle, a narrow and picturesque fault that cuts into the cliff, and ending at the erratic boulders, geological curiosities, masses of stone weighing over 130 tonnes, transported by glaciers 600,000 years ago.

Hike in the woods with a visit to the Peusse waterfalls in Ornans.

A short walk through the forest takes you from the very Catholic hermitage of Saint-Maximin to the prehistoric pagan dolmens. You will end up at the viewpoint overlooking Le Gratteris, whose name comes from the Celtic word kratt, meaning a stony field where you had to scratch hard to earn your livelihood.