The Cluniac site at Ruffey-sur-Seille

Head to Villevieux and park in the public car park on Grande Rue, next to the Town Hall.

(S/E) From the car park, head back to the junction of Grande Rue and Rue Nationale, towards the church. Turn right and walk carefully along this busy road until you reach the junction with Chemin du Petit Parc on the left and Rue Montenoise on the right. Turn right onto Rue Montenoise.

(1) Follow it to the next T-junction and turn left. Shortly afterwards, the tarmac road becomes the Chemin blanc de la Croix de Pierre. Walk across the fields before reaching a railway halt, after crossing an old railway line (now a cycle route). Keep to the right immediately after the small cottage.

(2) Take the Chemin de Longefin, which heads due east until it reaches the outskirts of Ruffey-sur-Seille. You’ll arrive at the junction near the old Rameaux oil mill, on the right, with its waterwheel.

(3) Turn right, cross the bridge over the Seillette and, immediately afterwards, turn left. Follow the stream on your left until you reach a wash house and a stone bridge. At the end of the path, cross this bridge, walk past the properties and join Rue d’Oisenans. Turn right and walk up this street to the old bridge over the Seille , keeping an eye out for the sawtooth gables. Cross the bridge towards Saint-Aignan Church.

(4) Walk round it on the left to return to the bridge and set off along the 19 March 1962 footpath, with the Seille on your right. Cross the metal bridge on the right, then turn right immediately afterwards towards Villevieux. Shortly afterwards, turn left towards the town hall, which is directly in front of you. Turn left onto a path that leads back to Rue Franche. When you reach Rue du Général Gauthier, turn left to reach Rue du Puits on your right.

(5) Take this street. Take in the medieval houses. At the end, turn right to return to Rue du Général Gauthier. Continue to the left. Walk past Vienne Castle, now the RATP holiday camp (on the left). After crossing the Seillette, turn left onto Rue Neuve. Further on, on the left, just before a sharp right-hand bend, you’ll find the former Saint-Christophe de Ruffey Priory, which also offers a view of the rear of the holiday camp.

(6) Continue along the paved road, following the route as it runs, until you reach the second junction, where it meets the Route de Juhans. Then turn right. Follow this road initially until you reach the junction with Rue de la Brizarde.

(7) Carry on straight ahead until you reach the junction with Route de Lons. Turn left and, immediately afterwards, right onto Rue du Pontot after crossing the River Sedan. At the T-junction, turn right onto Rue du Pontot. After crossing the River Sedan again and just before a large roundabout, you’ll come to a dirt track on the left, starting between two houses.

(8) Take this track and follow it straight ahead between a built-up area and fields. It veers left then right before ending, facing the Seillette, at the old grain mill, an imposing building on the right.

(9) Turn left onto a path running alongside the stream, then head right across the fields. It veers right twice before joining a local road known as Chemin de la Grange de Paille.

(10) Turn right onto this tarmac road, which joins the D38E2 (or Rue du Bas d’Oisenans), before reaching, after the bridge over the Seillette, the junction you passed on the way out.

(3) Turn left at the oil mill to return to Villevieux via the reverse route of the outward journey and reach the car park (S/E).

A hike – or rather a stroll – requiring no special equipment.

Between Villevieux and Ruffey-sur-Seille
Rue d’Oisenans
Look up to see saw-toothed gables. Many of the village’s roofs feature such gables. They served as ladders for ‘saper’ (to tear down) the thatch in the event of a fire. Later, the invention of fire engines made firefighting easier. This is the origin of the term ‘sapeur-pompier’ (firefighter).

Ruffey-sur-Seille
The Old Bridge or New Bridge
To preserve it, the bridge is now reserved for pedestrian use. Deemed dilapidated in 1768, the old 16th-century bridge was replaced by a new one in 1770, commissioned to J. Aubert. The structure consists of three arches, with a basket-handle arch as the central span between two semicircular arches. The parapet is horizontal, but the deck has a slight humpback profile. In October 1935, over a period of three days, 270 mm (27 cm) of rain fell on the region. The Seille burst its banks and swept away everything in its path. The village’s Pont Neuf was destroyed.

The Church of Saint-Aignan
With its tuff spire, it houses numerous paintings and a particularly rich collection of sculptures. In the chancel, the painting entitled *Le Serpent d’Airain* (The Bronze Serpent), a gift from the Lecourbe family, was long attributed to David. A second theory, however, suggests it is the work of the painter Lebrun. A Saint Anthony and a Virgin and Child, depicted with a swaying posture, can also be admired in the chancel. Among the various artefacts are a very pretty Pietà, a statue of Saint Anne teaching the Virgin to read, and an oak pulpit with richly carved panels. Around ten paintings, restored one by one over the years, complete this remarkable collection of furnishings.

For the record: after the metal bridge, on Rue Saint-Christophe, there is a sundial. This is the only example in Franche-Comté of a sundial bearing an inscription engraved in Greek. The motto means ‘Life flees like time’.

Lecourbe Castle
On the feudal motte, on the site of the former castle ruined by the French in 1637, General Lecourbe had a château built. Completed in 1811, it became the subject of a contentious inheritance following the general’s death in 1815 during the siege of Belfort, as he had no heirs. It was then sold to a building materials merchant who began demolition work, but the local population protested and a delegation travelled to Paris to secure the right to buy it back on condition that the town hall and school be established there.

At the junction of Rue du Gal Gauthier and Rue Neuve stands the house where General Lecourbe lived as a child. It is a fine 18th-century residence, comprising a main house and two outbuildings. A Napoleonic general, he distinguished himself through his courage and his sense of justice. He secured victory over General Suvorov during the Battle of the Devil’s Bridge, which, it is said, was every bit as significant as the Battle of the Arcole Bridge. His loyal friendship with General Moreau, who was implicated in the Cadoudal–Pichegru plot, led to his exile, in disgrace, to Ruffey. He would later rally to Napoleon’s side again during the Hundred Days and defend the town of Belfort.

For the record: the Bailiff’s House, situated on the edge of the former Place de la Halle, which once hosted the market… and the pillory, as the bailiff administered justice from its windows! Its vast vaulted cellar probably served as a storeroom for the nearby fortified castle.

Rue du Puits
Medieval houses. The layout of this street, forming a semicircle, is the only remaining evidence of the medieval town plan, which followed the course of the River Seille. Its old houses, built against the ramparts, have suffered heavy damage over the centuries, but they still retain many features from that era (cellars, mullioned windows and corbels on the façades). Behind these houses, on Rue de la Levée, one can see the remains of several defensive towers (loopholes).

Vienne Castle
By 1760, the feudal castle was in such a state of disrepair that the de Vienne family decided to erect a new, spacious building. At the top of the boundary pillars, pine cones symbolise fertility and prosperity. Today, it serves as the holiday camp for the Enfants du Métro (RATP).

The former Saint-Christophe Priory
Founded in the mid-8th century by monks from St Bénigne Abbey in Dijon, it served as a parish church until the current church was built. In the 10th century, the priory became a possession of St Marcel’s Abbey in Chalon-sur-Saône. Demolished in the 14th century, it was rebuilt in the 15th century. With no evidence of monastic life in 1663, it was described as a rural priory of the Order of Cluny, and its
was essentially to manage the extensive lands (vineyards, fields and woods). It survived until
the Revolution, when it was sold as national property. Acquired by Jean-Baptiste Lhomme, the priory became
a working farm. Purchased in 1970 by its current owners, it required years of work
to restore it and return it to its former splendour.
The two-bay chapel, lit by the pointed arch window in the chancel, features a vault adorned with coffers painted in trompe-l’œil style with medallions (unique in Franche-Comté). The chancel wall resembles an altarpiece featuring two griffins and four niches — only one of which is clearly visible — occupied by a bishop whose crozier is curiously replaced by a fleur-de-lis. On the right-hand wall, a decoration of foliage — intertwined leaves with cherubs — is strikingly poetic. The decoration on the left-hand wall, badly damaged by a barn door cut through during the Revolution, is difficult to make out. Built into its walls are acoustic pots which regulate sound, the effectiveness of which is demonstrated by the concerts held there.

For the record: the ‘moon house’ on the road to Lons. In days gone by, a custom allowed anyone to build a house on land belonging to no one and to claim ownership of it, provided it was built at night, that the chimney was smoking by morning, and that the door was locked. This challenge could be met in Bresse, with the help of fellow craftsmen on a full-moon night, thanks to the timber-framed sections that had been prepared in advance.

The mill
The information panels along the white-water route recount the economic history of the Seille over the centuries. This mill was purchased in 1800 by General Lecourbe from the Marquis de Damas, along with the entire estate. From then on, it was leased to a miller; its buildings were remodelled and its equipment renovated. In 1861, the mill had five waterwheels – so-called ‘upper-trough’ wheels – which turned millstones such as those on display before you. During the 20th century, this was no longer sufficient, as the site’s hydraulic power proved inadequate. Several millstones were replaced by cylinders and some water wheels by a turbine (before 1928); finally, the mill was electrified in 1953. It was the dawn of industrial milling! Around 1960, forty tonnes of wheat to be ground were delivered to the Ruffey mill every month. Despite its modernisation, the mill closed in 1970, like many small mills, bringing to an end more than six centuries of milling history in the village.

The Rameaux oil mill
Situated on the Seillette Canal since 1857, this mill has always been used to press oil on a contract basis for local people. The oil miller would visit the market in Bletterans every week to collect the seeds to be pressed. The following week, the oil would be delivered in barrels to the market.
From autumn to spring, as soon as the flow of the Seillette was sufficient to turn the wheel, up to 200 litres of oil were produced here each day. An electric motor assisted the wheel in generating the necessary power during the mill’s busiest periods. After several years of poor harvests, activity declined and then ceased completely in 1952, when local customers stopped bringing their harvest of seeds to the mill to be pressed, opting instead to buy ready-made oil from the grocer’s.