Champenay sandstone

From Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, head towards the school in Champenay via the D350.
Parking is available.

(S/E) With your back to the school, in the centre of the village, take the Route du Hantz on the right until you reach the start of the track on the left.

(1) Then continue left along this path, marked with a Yellow Triangle; pass under a power line and carry on to where it ends at a junction with another path crossing it.

(2) Turn left, then at the second junction, keep right (east) and go round a hill called Bois Royal. Carry on straight ahead at the next junction, then turn slightly to the right. Continuing straight ahead, rejoin the Route Forestière du Hantz, which is still marked with a Yellow Triangle.

(3) Follow it to the left and you’ll arrive near the Col du Hantz.

(4) 100 m before the pass, take the hairpin bend to the right onto the forest road marked with a Yellow Rectangle (^GR® 532). Then, at the junction, turn right, staying on the marked route (^GR® 532), which climbs up the mountainside to reach the Route forestière des Hautes Chaumes.

(5) Continue to the right (north) then straight on along the forest road marked with a Yellow Rectangle. You’ll reach a fork in the road before the power line.

(6) Leave the forest road and turn right onto an unmarked path. After 25 m, head up to the left, following the boundary markers of the former border between France and Germany from 1871 to 1918. Pass under the power line and arrive at boundary stone No. 2235. Turn right towards the north-east, following the boundary stones until you reach the Sentier des Passeurs.

(7) Turn right until you reach the junction with the Yellow Rectangle-marked path, also known as the Chemin des Allemands.

(8) Turn right at a 90° angle and follow the^GR® 532 path, which curves to the left. Further on, head down to the right onto the winding path marked with a Yellow Disc. At the crossroads, turn left, take a hairpin bend downwards, then cut across a track.

(9) At the next junction, turn left then right and cross another track onto a path that descends into the pretty Falle valley to a pond of the same name. Once at the bottom, you’ll come to a bridge and then a forest track.

(10) Head up this forest track to the left, still following the Yellow Disc markings. At the Fork in the road, continue uphill, then keep left at the next crossroads.

(11) Further up, leave the forest road on your left and follow the Yellow Disc markings along the path on the right. Continuing straight ahead, you’ll reach the first houses of Plaine via the Chemin des Chômeurs at a place called Les Fosses.

(12) Turn right onto the D196 (Route des Princes), signposted with a Yellow Triangle, which leads back to the starting point. (S/E)

Walking shoes, drinks, clothing and protective gear suitable for the weather.

Find more walking routes at rando-bruche.fr, the Bruche Valley Tourist Office’s walking website.

• Beautiful stained-glass windows in the chapel.
• The name ‘Hantz’ for the Col du Hantz probably derives from ‘Schantz’, meaning ‘entrenchment’ in German, due to the presence of a border and customs post between 1871 and 1918.
• The Champenay sandstone found in the ground around the village dates from the Permian period. It was formed from deposits in a river delta or on the shores of a lake in an arid climate. To date, no fossil remains have been found there.
• The large, numbered boundary markers of this former border, rising 80 cm above the ground, carved from Vosges sandstone and bearing the letter F on one side and the letter D on the other, are visible all along the route. After the 1870 war, 4,056 markers were erected at 60-metre intervals over a distance of more than 250 km.
• The ‘Germans’ forest road’ was built in 1914 on the orders of the German authorities by Polish and Russian female prisoners under particularly appalling conditions, to provide access to the border along the ridge. During the Second World War, this route was used by courageous smugglers and unsung heroes to facilitate the clandestine escape of opponents or victims of the Nazi regime. A sandstone monument, which you will pass, was erected in memory of these acts of bravery.
• The remains of old mills and the walls of a weaving mill along the Falle (stream) are a reminder of Champenay’s industrial past. The Étang de la Falle is a former reservoir that supplied water to the Champenay blast furnace in^{the 17th} century. Whilst the remains of this blast furnace have disappeared, the industrial waste from this industry (slag, in the form of cyan-blue vitrified rock fragments) can still be seen in the streams further downstream.
• The village of Plaine is crossed by ‘the Route des Princes’. This road linked the Principality of Salm to Alsace (Schirmeck) at a time when the two territories were independent.