Circular Madeleine in Novillard, Fontenelle and Petit-Croix

Park in the car park of the Novillard multi-purpose hall.
The hike is marked with a green disc.

(S/E) Leave the car park heading north-west, with your back to the village, and follow the small road. Cross the LGV (high-speed train line).

(1) After the bridge, turn left and follow the path. Pass a trail on your left and come out in front of the SNCF barrier on the Paris-Basel line (old line).

(2) Turn right, follow the track and cross it on the bridge on the left to enter Fontenelle. Beautiful view of the Vosges mountains. Follow Rue des Chenevières, pass in front of the town hall, leave Rue des Rosières on your left, then Rue du Moulin. At the corner of the latter, take the small path on the right into the pleasant landscaped garden next to the Autruche river. Return to the D54.

(3) Take Rue du Prairot (D28) almost opposite. Leave Fontenelle and cross a cultivated area.
When you reach the forest, turn right onto the forest path which, 500 metres further on, leads to a much wider stone path.

(4) Follow it to the right, go straight ahead to the turning area, then walk along the Madeleine on your right. The landscape near the river is really very pretty. Cross the footbridge, turn left immediately afterwards, then right, and follow the almost straight path through the woods to join the GRE5.

(5) Follow it to the right. Continue straight ahead, leaving numerous forest paths on your right and left. Follow the markings carefully. 100 metres after leaving the forest, you will come to a crossroads just before the Pégoud stele.

(6) Continue straight ahead to the stele. Read the information board, then return to the crossroads 20 metres behind you and turn south-west. Follow the green disc markings and the path that winds between the fields to reach a crossroads with a signpost.

(7) Continue straight ahead. Cross a grove.

(8) 200 metres further on, turn right then left. The path leads to Rue de la Ragie Rondat, which leads to the D28 (Grande Rue).

(9) Turn left. Pass in front of the Town Hall and then the Pégoud memorial.

(10) At the end of the village, turn right onto Rue de la Barrière (D29) towards Novillard.
Walk past the church, cross the level crossing and continue along the road until you reach the entrance to Novillard.

(11) Turn right onto Rue du Moulin just after the Novillard sign. The route winds through the village, but the signposts are helpful. At the end, turn left onto Rue de la Fontaine. Join the D29 (Grande Rue) and follow it to the right for 100 metres.

(12) Note the old boundary stones bearing coats of arms in front of the town hall. Turn left onto Rue de l'Église. Then turn right onto Rue des Vergers and return to Grande Rue, continuing on the left. Immediately pass Rue Bel Air on your left.

(13) Turn right onto Rue des Chennecées and continue straight ahead to the multi-purpose hall and the starting car park (S/E).

Parking at the Novillard multipurpose hall. Address: Rue sur le Rond 90340 Novillard.

Visorando was informed by Mr Chevalley, a volunteer member of Balisage90.
This hike was created by the Bourbeuse Basin Community of Communes, which is now part of Greater Belfort.

Novillard
Place names: Nueviller (1251), Rottwiller (1347), Nuwilre (1394), Noueller (1413), Meïerthum rotwilt (1427), Novillard (1793). In German: Neuwiller
Its inhabitants are called Novelais.
In 1251, the name of the village was mentioned in a document concerning the priory of Froidefontaine in the form of Nueviller. The fiefdom was part of the seigneury of Rougemont-le-Château in 1125, when Frederick I of Ferrette endowed the monastery of Valdieu, now in the Haut-Rhin department. There was already a church in Novillard at that time. It was also the capital of a town hall dependent on the seigneury of Rougemont (of which it marked the southern boundary) and then on the provostship of Angeot, seigneury of Belfort. The village's fate largely mirrored that of the surrounding villages: it was attached to the domains of the House of Austria from 1350 to 1648. The Church of Saint-Julien was built in the 1770s.
Source: Wikipedia

The Pégoud monument
On 31 August 1915, flying ace Adolphe Pégoud (1889-1915), assigned to the MS49 squadron based in Fontaine, was shot down in the skies above Petit-Croix by a German opponent and his Nieuport crashed in a field. The hike passes near the site where a monument was erected on 23 September 1917, then moved to the centre of the village on 15 May 1982 for practical reasons: it commemorates this tragic end.
A very detailed information board recounts the information given here.

Petit Croix
The inhabitants are known as Peticruciens and Petitcruciennes.
Located in the Madeleine basin, Petit Croix benefits from the riches of the river while accepting its floods. The river rises in the Vosges mountains in the aptly named village of Lamadeleine.
The village is on the edge of the railway line. The TGV line passes nearby.
The name Pilicors first appears in 1105 in the charter founding the priory of Froidefontaine (symbolised by the fleur-de-lis on the coat of arms). The village was limited to a simple chapel around which a hamlet developed, attached to the town hall of Haute-Assise, one of the five districts that made up the seigneury of Belfort. In the 13th century, the village was divided into two fiefdoms belonging respectively to Richard de Belfort and the Lord of Montreux. Both encouraged the establishment of new farms.
In 1295, the village was named Petit-Croix.
In 1390, it took the name Petit Cropt and the chapel became a parish church dedicated to Our Lady.
In 1441, the village was called Bittikropff and the parish was part of the diocese of Basel.
In 1492, the village became Piticorp, then Petitcroq in 1613, before reverting to Petit-Croix around 1648.
The name of the village comes from a misunderstanding: the original name was Petit Creux. The German administration read Creux as Kreuz and interpreted the name of the village as Kleinkreuz, which translates into English as Petit-Croix.
The current church was built in 1852. It has the distinctive feature of having an open bell tower. Damaged several times, the roof of the bell tower was finally replaced by a spire made of four reinforced concrete beams topped with a metal cross and a weathercock.
It was not until 1782 that it was attached to the Diocese of Besançon. Then, more recently, it was attached to the Diocese of Belfort-Montbéliard when it was created in 1979. The church is dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, symbolised by the crescents on the coat of arms.

Fontenelle
Place names: Fontonel (1576), Fontenelle (1793).
Its inhabitants are called Fontenellois.
Its name is only mentioned in the archives from 1458 onwards. At that time, the locality was part of the Haute-Assise town hall, which also included Chèvremont, Petit-Croix and part of Bessoncourt.
In 1608, Jean Besançon, a bourgeois from Belfort, acquired the fiefdom of Fontenelle, which he retained until the Revolution.
In the 15th century, there is evidence of a fortified house, which disappeared in the 18th century, but of which the Moulin farm remains. It was powered by the Autruche river.
Source: Wikipedia