Gorze Abbey and the Rocher de la Pucelle

Parking available at Place du Général de Gaulle (nicknamed Place Rouge by the locals), just below the school.

(S/E) Walk down the square to the small bridge crossing the Gorzia (Gorze stream). Take a small path on the left which leads onto Rue du Commerce. Follow it to the left and, at the junction with Rue de l’Église, go up to the right along a wide grassy path. At the T-junction, turn right and follow the rampart walk for a few dozen metres until you reach the old wrought-iron gates. Take the path on the left that climbs up to the statue of the Virgin Mary. After a few bends, at the rock supporting the statue, leave the path to go under the rock, following the slope on the right via the alternative path. Shortly after the final bend, you’ll reach the meadow overlooking the statue. Walk up the grassy slope to the wayside cross.

(1) Take the path on the left that runs alongside the field and head down towards the dairy farm until you reach the Rézonville road (D103b). Cross the road with care and follow it to the left for about fifty metres until you reach the “Chalet CTL” sign on the right-hand side. Then turn right and head down to the crossroads below the chalet.

(2) Take the^second path on the left, a grassy track that climbs slightly (between the stony path furthest to the left and the path running along the left-hand side of a chalet). Once at the top, continue along a field to the edge of the woods, at the bottom of the fenced-off grounds of the Prieuré Saint-Thiébault. At the fork, take the path opposite (do not take the path going up to the right along the wall). You will reach the football pitch.

(3) Go round the football and handball pitches on the right (the house above is a bakery) and take the path opposite that climbs towards the D12 (Rue de la Meuse, towards the Gorze exit). After about 50 m downhill on the left-hand side of the road (tables and benches), carefully cross the D12 at the junction with the road leading up to the cemetery (heavy traffic at weekends). This is the most dangerous part of the walk, along with the Virgin’s Rock. At the top of the cemetery, go through the gate and take the path leading uphill opposite. It heads south to a junction with a Yellow Cross on a tree to the right and another on a tree to the left.

(4) Turn left here. After about a hundred metres, at a T-junction, turn left. Follow the path northwards along the top of the cliff overlooking Gorze.

(5) You will come out onto a forest track; follow it to the right as it descends to the right. At the bend, the track, now a wide forest road, descends straight down (and not in a hairpin bend as shown on the IGN25 map) towards the rear of the retirement home. At the T-junction, turn right. You’ll come out onto Chemin de Saint-Clément; follow it to the right, heading south-east. At the chapel, continue along the road, which becomes a forest track making a very wide bend to the right. At the end, you’ll reach a fork.

(6) Take the left-hand track, which runs almost parallel but slightly further down the valley and soon veers off to the left. Climb, staying on the track and ignoring the two paths branching off to the left, until you emerge at the top onto a dirt track.

(7) Follow the road to the left and continue on level ground. At the T-junction, take the path on the left (almost opposite the dirt track on the right). After about 250 m heading due north, you’ll reach a fork.

(8) Continue along the main path to the right, and after passing above the springs of the “Fond de la Gueule” and the ruined Gloriette, the path joins the^GR®5(^GRP® in the Côte de Moselle and Côte de Meuse regions), which descends to the left towards Gorze. Then take a tarmac road on the right, then immediately Rue du Général De Gaulle on the left for a few metres. A narrow lane climbs up to the left towards the Éang de la Folie (Chemin de Vandelainville).

(9) Walk up this lane and take the^first path on the right (at the tennis courts, just after the block of flats). The picturesque path follows the top of the gardens on Rue du Général de Gaulle, then veers to the left. Continue along the small dirt track on the right, which turns left immediately afterwards, passes between the primary school and the nursery school, and leads to the Collégiale Saint-Étienne.

(10) Go round it on the right, at the bottom. At the small triangular square (Place du Château) with a view of the Abbot’s Palace, turn sharply right onto Rue du Général de Gaulle, between the town hall and the former vicarage. Walk alongside the town hall garden (two sculptures and the rather sombre Pierre à Gibet), and return to the car park, from where there is a fine view of the church (S/E).

Bakeries: 113 Rue du Commerce, 190 Rue de la Meuse.

Grocery shop: 1 Place Maurice Barres.

Doctor: 88 Rue du Commerce.

Gorze Abbey. In 749, Chrodegang (Bishop of Metz and advisor to Pepin the Short) founded Gorze Abbey, which became a major centre for Metz chant (Gregorian chant), and St Stephen’s Church was built in the 12th and 13th centuries (the oldest Gothic building in Lorraine).
The Treaty of Vincennes annexed the land of Gorze to France in 1661.

Town water fountain in Rue de la Meuse near the Abbot’s Palace, currently closed but due to be operational soon.

Fontaine des Allemands, untreated spring water (said to be ‘miraculous for burns’), a water point located in a basin carved into the pavement on the right-hand side (as you go up) on Chemin Fontaine des Allemands, on the right as you leave the village (towards Novéant).