Val de Consolation (Notre-Dame de Consolation)

Consolation-Maisonnettes

At the foot of a cirque of cliffs 350 metres high, where the Dessoubre and the Lançot waterfall have their source, the Val de Consolation lives up to its name. Marian devotion took root here in the late Middle Ages: tradition tells that a peasant discovered an image of the Virgin in a lime tree, and that the lord François de la Palud, taken prisoner in Cyprus in 1426, called upon Our Lady of Consolation and promised her a chapel. He is said to have woken the next morning, still weighed down by his chains, on the lands of his own seigneury — and kept his word. Hermits long inhabited the caves of the cirque, such as the recluse named Jean who occupied the Saint-Jean cave on the eve of the Revolution. In 1670, the Minims settled in the valley and built the monastery whose chapel, raised in 1682 in the Jesuit taste, still overlooks the gardens. A junior seminary from 1830 to 1978, the site is today a place of retreat and hospitality at the heart of a 200-hectare natural park criss-crossed by paths, springs and waterfalls. It is also told, of the Roche du Prêtre that looms over the cirque, that a giant asleep beneath the mountain sweats without end, giving birth to the springs, a priest having sealed his cave with an enormous boulder. A valley out of time, between running waters and monastic silence.

Getting there : From Guyans-Vennes or Fuans by the D39, drive down to the floor of the cirque; parking in front of the monastery (1 chemin des Tuffes). The Roche du Prêtre viewpoint can be reached by car from Guyans-Vennes.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound