The Saâles ridges

Park in the car park at Saales station.

(S/E) With your back to the station, head straight along Rue de la Gare. After 200 m, at the junction with Rue de l’Église, turn right, then immediately left. Pass to the right of the church and the primary school.

(1) At the junction with the Grand Rue, turn right onto it. Continue straight on, passing to the left of the market halls and town hall, and carry on along the street, following the Red Cross signposting, which soon becomes the Rue du Chêne. You’ll come to a junction with a forest track. You may be able to see the Fontaine du Sanglier 30 m to your right.

(2) Continue following the Red Cross signposts for 1.3 km (see alternative route in the practical information section: a return trip to the Chapelle de la Vierge). After several bends, you’ll reach the summit of Solamont, where the Red Cross-marked path turns 90° to the left. If you take a 100-metre detour to the right here, you can reach a place called the Rocher des Enfants.

(3) Continue for 1.5 km along the Red Cross-marked path to the hamlet known as ‘le Palais’, where there are a few isolated houses.

(4) Cross the D304 and take the Blue Cross-marked path opposite. Continue for 2 km along this path until you reach the carriageway section of the Route de Belfays, near the farm of the same name.

(5) Continue straight on for 900 m, following the Blue Cross markings, until you reach the Col des Broques and the hamlet of Les Quatre Bornes.

(6) Turn left onto the path marked with a Blue Cross and follow it for 2.2 km to return to Saâles via the Via Salinatoru. Pass a holiday village on your right and join Rue de la Liberté.

(7) Continue straight on for 150 m until you arrive back in front of the primary school.

(1) Follow the path back the way you came, walking past the church on your left and continuing straight on towards the station car park (S/E).

Walking shoes, drinks, and suitable clothing and protective gear depending on the weather.
Find more walking routes on the Bruche Valley Tourist Office’s walking website.

Facilities in the village: mountain farmers’ market in the centre of Saâles (town hall/market halls), from 3 pm to 6.30 pm every Friday in July and August and on the^second Friday of every month for the rest of the year – Dairy (yoghurts and fresh cheeses). – Bakery.

After the viewpoint (2) Alternative route: Chapel of the Virgin of Bourg-Bruche (return journey +1 km, +20 mins). At the hairpin bend, leave the signposted path and continue straight ahead. After 250 m, turn slightly left off the forest track. The chapel is 250 m straight ahead. To continue the route, return to the Red Cross signposted path and continue following it as it climbs to the right.

(3) Rocher des Enfants: according to legend, in times long past, children who died unbaptised could not be buried in the cemetery. Their grief-stricken parents would therefore lay them on this rock in the hope that they might receive baptism from the angels or that the ‘Grande Fileuse’, a pagan goddess, would come to take their souls and carry them to heaven

(4) Le Palais is a hamlet in the village of Saint-Stail. This area consisted of mountain pastures maintained and used by families of mountain farmers living in dwellings scattered across the hillsides.
The Belfays wind farm consists of ten 2 MW wind turbines (spread across six municipalities). The turbines have a combined total capacity of 20 MW, enough to supply electricity to nearly 15,000 households. The entire wind farm came into operation in 2017 in a windy corridor at an altitude of 800 m and was 20 per cent funded by community shareholding.

(6) There are four boundary markers at this location. The largest one in the centre marked the boundary between the territories of the Gallic tribes: the Leuques and the Triboques. The smaller ones around it marked the boundary between the Duchy of Lorraine, the Principality of Salm and Alsace. Finally, the France–Germany border from 1870 to 1918 also ran through this point.

(6) The “via salinatorum” or “route des Saulniers” was a road linking Lorraine to Alsace, used by salt merchants.