From Belfahy to Miellin via the Saint-Blaise Chapel

Start at the car park at the exit of Belfahy on the D98 heading towards Col des Chevrères.

The route is marked with a yellow ring from Col des Chevrères

(S/E) At the start, follow the^GR®59marked in red and white, which climbs and heads east.
After about 100 metres, leave the^GR® by turning left onto the path marked with a blue ring. It joins the road at Col des Chevrères.

(1) Continue to the right along the edge of the road. It makes a^first hairpin bend, continue to the^second hairpin bend.

(2) Leave the path on the left in the bend and continue along the road until you reach a left-hand bend with a path starting on the right.

(3) Cross the Ruisseau des Landres stream and immediately afterwards, turn right onto the forest path marked with a yellow ring. Cross a small stream and ignore two paths on the right and two on the left. Cross another stream and continue downhill.

(4) At the crossroads, turn right and climb, following the sign for Chapelle Saint-Blaise, about 250 metres away.

(5) Admire the chapel, the spring and the superb landscape. Turn around and return to the crossroads.

(4) Turn right and continue downhill. After about 100 metres, turn right, following the signs. Cross the Goutte Radère stream. Pass a path on your right, then a second one, and descend to the bottom of the valley. You will arrive at the bridge over the Doue de l'Eau.

(6) Turn left just before the bridge. On the other side of the bridge, you can see a forest house where an old glassworks once stood. Continue downhill, following the left bank of the river. Cross the river and you will reach a tarmac road.

(7) Follow it to the left. When you reach Miellin, look for a stele on the right and a superb wooden footbridge crossing the river on the left. Take the time to admire it, then continue along the tarmac road towards Miellin.

(8) Go straight past the church and turn left immediately afterwards. Cross the river and follow the road as it begins to climb. Pass a road on your left and continue to a crossroads near a cross. Note the statue of the Virgin Mary on the rocks by the road climbing to the left.

(9) Continue straight ahead and follow the lower road that runs parallel to the river until you reach the hamlet of Les Frechins.

(10) At the hamlet, cross the Goutte des Landres and immediately after, turn left. Follow the path that climbs steeply along the left bank.

(11) At the next crossroads, turn right and continue climbing. The path makes a sharp left turn, leaving a path coming from the right and arriving at a Y-shaped crossroads.

(12) Follow the path on the left and continue climbing. At the top, at the barrier, the path leads to the hairpin bend encountered on the way up.

(2) Turn right and return to the starting point (S/E) via the Col de Chevrères, which you took on the way up.

Start at the car park at the exit of Belfahy on the D98 heading towards Col des Chevrères.

You can also start the hike from Miellin. In this case, park near the church and start the route at (8).

Belfahy is the highest commune in Haute-Saône.
19th-century Saint-Nicolas Church.

There are tree houses in the surrounding area that can be rented.

Miellin: the village was founded in 1111 around a small Romanesque chapel. Like Franche-Comté, Miellin became part of France in 1678 under the Treaty of Nijmegen.
According to Wikipedia, Miellin had granite quarries from which the pedestal of Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides, the columns of the Opéra Garnier in Paris and the columns of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille were extracted.
These quarries closed at the beginning of the Second World War, but are still visible today.

From mid-1939 to the end of 1941, Miellin was home to a French internment camp for around 600 Spanish Republican refugees, mainly women and children, at a place called Le Champ de la Grange. Following the declaration of war with Germany on 3 September 1939, the French government removed Spanish refugee women and children from the towns and villages that had taken them in during the Retirada in January 1939, interning them in existing concentration camps or creating new centres such as the one in Miellin.

The commune was awarded the 1939-1945 War Cross. The village was bombed by the Nazi armies for 52 days, injuring or killing 10% of its 200 inhabitants and destroying 59 of the 75 houses, before being liberated on 22 September 1944.

Saint Blaise Chapel.
It was built in 1822. Next to it flows a spring. It is the origin of the saying: "Saint Blaise's water soothes all ills".

The place known as La Verrerie refers to a large glassworks, which operated from 1729 to 1835. All that remains on this site is an abandoned forest house.