Beautiful stage through the Jura. Many open stretches through meadows and along forests. At the beginning, the route ascends quickly to Fort du Larmont. Then descends to La Cluse-et-Mijoux and climbs again to Les Fourges with beautiful views. From there, the route remains pretty flat and passes through beautiful stretches of forest and meadows. The route ends with the descent into Les Hôpitaux-Neufs.
The GR5 is located quite a bit above the campsite. Before arriving at this campsite, we walked about 2 kilometers away from the trail and descended 170 meters. And this morning we have to go up again to pick up the trail. It’s a stretch with nice views; we walk through meadows with lots of flowers and views over the lower parts of the Jura. A nice start to the hike. And our muscles are nicely warmed up as well when we reach the top.
At the top, we walk past a pasture with horses into the woods. We follow a wide forest path with rock walls on the side. This leads us to Fort Mahler du Larmont, a colossal military fort built in 1850 to protect the adjacent fort, Fort Joux. This is a much older castle dating back to the 11th century and Fort Mahler has done its job well; it really looks like a well-preserved medieval castle.
We descend to a village where we can tap some drinking water for our break. We plan to walk another 5 kilometers to a hut that’s indicated on the map. From the village we follow the road up, after which the path remains flat for quite a while. We walk across freshly mowed meadows among beautiful pine forests. The landscape is almost park-like. Here and there are beautiful French barns and at the end stands the little hut (Abri du Belvedère de la Roche Sarrazine). With two picnic benches next to it and a beautiful view of the valley we just passed, with the fortress and castle on the other side. Fortunately, we have good phone coverage here. Today is Mark’s mother’s birthday and this is a lovely quiet spot to video call. What a luxury that we live in a time when you can have video contact with home, in the middle of the Jura. It’s really nice to speak and see each other again!
After the break, the route takes us through a large valley with agricultural land and Les Forges, a village consisting of a wide, long straight road with houses on either side. In winter a base for the surrounding ski areas; in summer a sleepy village where now only a café is open where some bikers sit together. At the end of the village, the trail turns right off the main road and we walk up through meadows to a little chapel. By now it is summer hot and we use the shade to have a sip and eat an apple.
By now we’ve walked 17 kilometers and still have a good 10 more to go. From here the route remains fairly flat. Again we walk through a beautiful valley over meadows with woods on either side. At the edge of the path, a group of older men are sitting together under a canopy, enjoying life with drinks and food. A little further on the route, a photographer is busy capturing a couple in love in bridal wear for wedding pictures with a classic old car. They picked a beautiful spot!
The farmer who owns these pastures is obviously less fond of hikers. There are quite a few areas fenced off with electric fencing to keep the cows in, or to keep hikers out. But well, the GR5 runs through it, so in some places we slither under (a challenge with a heavy backpack on our back ) or clamber over it.
Just before we start the descent to the campsite, we see a small hut at the end of the meadow, with a table and a bench next to it. Here we make a last short break and once back on the road we pick some fresh strawberries and raspberries.
As soon as we arrive at the campground it turns out that we are lucky; we can just get a patch of grass between 2 cottages; all the regular spots are occupied. The village is on the edge of a ski area used by mountain bikers in the summer, and this is the weekend of July 14th (a French national holiday) and it’s lovely weather, so French campsites are starting to get crowded.
It’s a strange place to pitch the tent, but it’s only for 1 night. We are glad the owner was still able to arrange this spot for us. Lucky us, otherwise we would have had to walk quite a distance to as nother campsite and this stage was already quite long and heavy with it’s 27 kilometers. But truely beautiful as well!
