Mont Poupet et les trois soleils de la Trinité

Saint-Thiébaud

Seen from Salins, the Poupet raises its small limestone cliffs above the roofs and the saltworks; from the belvedere of La Croix one sees the plain of Dole and, in clear weather, Mont Blanc. Near the summit grow twisted beeches and the mountain kidney vetch, the 'pompon du Poupet'. On this peak 'almost inaccessible and lost in the clouds', wrote Rousset in 1854, stood one of the castles that protected the saltworks: Hugues de Rans, seneschal of the county of Burgundy, held it, vassal of Count Jean from 1264; then came the Salins, including, according to Wikipedia, Guigone, foundress of the Hospices de Beaune, and the Poupets; castle, town and borough were ruined by the troops of Louis XI in 1479, and in the 19th century only a few sections of wall remained near a spring. The Franc-Comtois tradition, collected by Beauquier and taken up by Sébillot in 1904, has it that whoever, on Trinity Sunday, before dawn, having taken communion and fasting, makes the ascent of Mont Poupet or the Dôle sees three suns rise; at Salins, it is added that only perfectly innocent souls achieve this and that Saint Claude himself, in the 7th century, did not see them. Stories of giants also surround the mountain. Sébillot observes that the same marvel was expected in the Vosges, in Auvergne and in Normandy, but on Saint John's Day: less a local prodigy than an old solar folklore. On 3 October 1860, Pasteur opened twenty flasks here against spontaneous generation.

Wikipédia — Mont Poupet ↗

Getting there : At the entrance to Salins-les-Bains, take the D 492 towards Ornans, then the D 273 towards Myon and, after one kilometre, the Route du Mont-Poupet to the La Croix car park; the road continues to the summit. From the car park, a laid-out path climbs 50 m to the belvedere of La Croix, accessible to people with reduced mobility. On foot, the GR 59 and the Chemin de l'Âne climb from the D 492 to the belvedere and then to Le Signal; another path leaves from the church of Saint-Thiébaud towards the Corne de Saint-Thiébaud and its launch sites. Allow three hours for the loop from Salins (to be checked).

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

Ambient sound