From Saint Félicien to Vaudevant

Departure from Saint Félicien, parking available in the car park near the post office and town hall.

(S/E) From the car park, follow signs for Vaudevant. Drive up the narrow streets of Saint-Félicien, passing the town hall and the post office. Turn left, then right, and you will arrive at the park entrance.

(1) Leave the park lane on your left and continue straight ahead towards Moulin des Gaillards, taking the small road on the right that runs alongside the cemetery. You will arrive at the intersection just after the cemetery car park.

(2) Turn right towards Vaudevant and La Simonde. A few dozen metres after the right-hand bend on the road to La Simonde, a path branches off to the left.

(3) It climbs through a pine forest and arrives at the hamlet of La Routisse. Continue along the small road until you reach Lapras. After the hamlet, continue to the right-hand bend.

(4) Ignore the Chemin de Sauze and descend the path that veers left at the end of the right-hand bend towards the departmental road. You will arrive at the Route de Vaudevant. Cross it carefully and take a path that leads to a small road on the left a little further on. Follow it carefully until you reach a fork.

(5) Follow Char and turn right. Then climb up to the left towards the church. Turn right, then left towards the church.

(6) Go around it on the left, then turn left at the next crossroads and left again. Ignore the Chemin du Gibet and continue straight up towards Les Combes, then Char, along a pleasant path.

(7) Continue towards Saint-Félicien. Then follow the small road on the left, enjoying the superb panorama before arriving at Brudon.

(8) Keep going straight ahead. Further on, ignore the road to Chaumet and, at the fork, go straight ahead to descend towards Murat.

(9) Continue along the small road towards Saint-Félicien. Follow the signs for Saint-Félicien and return to the crossroads before the cemetery you passed on the way there.

(2) Descend along the route, in the opposite direction to the outward journey, and return to the starting point (S/E).

See the Rando en Ardèche Hermitage website

Access
From Tournon-sur-Rhône, take the D238 then the D532 to Saint Félicien.

Public transport:
Line 11 Tournon sur Rhône - Saint Félicien - Lalouvesc

Park
Post office car park

Saint Félicien and its church
Written records of the village of St-Félicien date back to the^10th century. Monks from the collegiate church of St-Barnard (Romans-sur-Isère) came here to found a priory. The village developed around the priory chapel, which later became the parish church. Step inside the church to explore its interior. The choir is a fine example of early Romanesque art from^{the 11th} century. The south aisle was partly destroyed and rebuilt at the end of the Middle Ages. It is more sober in style with pointed arches.

Stone masks
At the east end of the church in Vaudevant, a cute little devil smiles and sticks out his tongue, mocking passers-by. Other enigmatic stone masks adorn the walls of some houses in the commune of Vaudevant, as they do throughout the Saint-Félicien region. They are quite frequently found on the exterior walls of churches, on wealthy bourgeois houses, on mission crosses or embedded in the walls of rural houses. Of all ages and shapes, their presence remains very enigmatic and gives rise to all kinds of interpretations, some of them highly fanciful. Playful practices, stone carvers' fantasies, beliefs and superstitions inherited from our Celtic ancestors, symbols of protection... What do all these human faces staring at us with such distinctive expressions represent? It's up to you to imagine! Source: Le chemin des masques (The Path of Masks), Saint Félicien region, History and Heritage Association.

Vaudevant
The village is mentioned as early as the^13th century. Its name comes from "Val des Avents", "les Avents" being a hamlet located on the heights of the commune. In 1090, the village was annexed to St-Félicien and came under the influence of the chapter of Canons of St-Barnard (Romans-sur-Isère). However, after lengthy negotiations, the village regained its autonomy in 1790.