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Circuit découverte : La vallée du Giffre et le Cirque du Fer à Cheval

Road in Annemasse

145.4 km

Road

Easy

A typical alpine valley with a mix of forests, pastures, crops, sunny villages and hamlets. Discover the tourist village resorts. Pastoral landscapes dominated by mountains, with the Giffre river running through the valley floor.

Departure

Annemasse
Difference in height

2793.08 m
Plain text period

All year round. Beware of winter access conditions (snow).
Documentation
- GPX Trace
GPX / KML files allow you to export the trail of your hike to your GPS (or other navigation tool)

Accepted customers
- Individuals

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Points of interest

1 PAYSALP Culture & Patrimoine

2 Chartreuse de Mélan

3 Peal of bells at Taninges and harmonium museum

4 St Jean-Baptiste Church of Taninges

5 Samoëns Tourist Office

6 The Cascade du Rouget

7 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval church

8 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval Abbaye

9 Picnic area at the Cirque du Fer à Cheval

10 Bureau des Guides de Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval

11 Fer-à-Cheval Chalet Restaurant

12 The 30 waterfalls of the Cirque du Fer à Cheval

13 Fer-à-Cheval toboggan slope

14 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval / Passy Nature Reserve

1 PAYSALP Culture & Patrimoine

A museum that recounts life in the mountains in the last century. Carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers... tell you about their daily lives in an immersive exhibition. As a family, with friends, as a couple or even on your own, we look forward to welcoming you. There are so many unusual objects in this museum! But who did they belong to, and what could they have been used for? It's up to you to find out with our game booklets for young and old. You'll even be able to solve a certificate exercise in the classroom, bringing back memories for some.
Are you a gamer? Then our Absurd Game is for you: a timed exploration of the Museum filled with enigmas. Can you conjure up the curse that threatens you?
Groups all year round on reservation: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.paysalp.fr">www.paysalp.fr</a>

2 Chartreuse de Mélan

The Chartreuse de Mélan is a place steeped in history, combining medieval sobriety and contemporary art. Discover its church, cloister and park of monumental contemporary art sculptures. In the beautiful setting of the Giffre valley, the Chartreuse de Mélan is a place steeped in history, combining medieval sobriety and contemporary art. Exhibitions are held in the church, with its refined architecture and magnificent cloister. Around the building, with free access, contemporary sculptures bear witness to the multiple lives of the Carthusian monastery, once a female monastery, a religious college and then a departmental orphanage.
The Department's team of cultural mediators offers a wide range of guided tours and fun activities from April to October.

The contemporary sculpture park
Open to the public, the large park around the Chartreuse de Mélan is home to a dozen monumental works. Each artist has endeavored to bear witness to the strong and moving history of the site or its surroundings.

3 Peal of bells at Taninges and harmonium museum

The peal of bells at Taninges, in the church belltower, is the largest in the area: it has 40 bells and every year attracts expert bellringers for concert performances. It also houses a collection of harmoniums. Abbé Bastard-Boghain, the parish priest at the time, was responsible for the Taninges carillon. A musician at heart, he launched a subscription campaign among parishioners, enabling him to install 15 bells and a 30-key keyboard in 1939. Abbé Bastard-Boghain used to play the bells at religious festivals and ceremonies.
After his departure in 1967, the carillon fell into oblivion. It wasn't until 1985 and the creation of the Association du Carillon de Taninges that the instrument was revived, thanks to the determination of a handful of volunteers. Over the years, the number of bells has successively increased to reach 40.
Climbing the 127 steps up to the keyboard, visitors can discover a permanent exhibition on the art of bell ringing and a collection of harmoniums.

4 St Jean-Baptiste Church of Taninges

A monumental church by its size but also by its history ! Built between 1824 and 1834 by the architect Prosper Dunant, the St Jean-Baptiste church is from the last architectural style of the States of Savoy : neo-classic Sardinian. Before, it was the biggest of the diocese of Annecy : 58 m length, 27 m wide and 18 m height.
The facade of the building looks austere with few ornaments, but inside there is a profusion of decoration : paintings on the vault and pillars, stalls, carved wood and multicolored stained glasses.

The visitor will visit a religious building and will discover how the jacquemarde population was decorating its churches there during the XIXth century.

5 Samoëns Tourist Office

The safest way to a successful holiday in Samoëns. Located near the centre of the village, beside a vast free car park, the artificial winter ice rink, the Tourist Office is open to visitors all year round. Within the framework of its quality reception approach, the Tourist Office participates in the success of your stay, by offering you, via its reception and information area, free services which will improve and simplify your holidays in Samoëns and by committing itself to provide you with the following services
- To provide you with the information you need to make your stay in our village resort a success.
- To assist you in your search for accommodation and to direct you to the service provider(s) likely to be able to help you.
Our reception service offers you the following services:
- Registration for free events offered by the tourist office
- Sale of posters and goodies with the Samoëns logo
- Photocopying
- Provision of documentation on the resort's surroundings.
- Sale of hiking maps and snowshoeing routes.
- Sale of fishing permits

6 The Cascade du Rouget

Also known as "The Queen of the Alps", is Sixt's best-known waterfall. The torrent surges dramatically in two huge steps, falling for over 80 metres. It's located 6 kilometres beyond the hamlet of Salvagny, and you can get there easily by car except in winter. In the winter months the road is closed to cars but you can park near the road block and then walk or snowshoe to the waterfall. It takes an hour and a half there and back and is at a height of 1000 metres - a height gain of about 100 metres from the car park.

7 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval church

A 13th-century church comprising an abbatial part and a parochial part. You can wander freely in the gardens.

8 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval Abbaye

This 12th-century abbey is owned by the commune of Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval and the Département de la Haute-Savoie.
It hosts a themed exhibition every summer. The abbey's various buildings were constructed in 1144. Ponce de Faucigny became the first abbot of this monastery ruled by Saint Augustin's order, as were the Abondance and Saint-Maurice d'Agaune monasteries of Valais.
The abbey established the foundations of agropastoralism, allowing many generations of Savoie-dwellers living in harsh conditions to gradually adapt to necessary developments. Relations between the abbey and the villagers were complex. Although they did not clear the valley as it is often thought, the canons did at least contribute to its enhancement. Sold as national property, the cloistral buildings were partly acquired by Albanis Beaumont, an engineer who wanted to relaunch the mining activity. The other part remained the property of the Cochet innkeepers who, in 1821, boasted "the region's best inn". Purchased at the end of the 19th century by the Rannaud family, the abbey then became the Hôtel du Fer à Cheval et de l'Abbaye. The abbatial structure was acquired by the Department in the year 2000.

Art and culture section of the council of the Department of Haute-Savoie

9 Picnic area at the Cirque du Fer à Cheval

A picnic area has been installed at the Cirque du Fer-à-Cheval Please follow these rules of good practice:

- Do not leave any wrappers behind - a rubbish bin is provided
- Show respect and good manners to ensure others enjoy the facilities

10 Bureau des Guides de Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval

These qualified guides have a passion for what they do and can propose a whole range of mountaineering activities. "Modern Tradition".
This is the spirit that guides the Guides of Sixt Fer-à-Cheval.
It is part of the tradition of the third oldest Guides de France company, founded in 1865 in Sixt.
Here for you whatever your project, in these mountains or others around the world.

11 Fer-à-Cheval Chalet Restaurant

Enjoy the traditional food with a breathtaking view of the Fer-à-Cheval circle. Located near the car park, easily access this restaurant which offers typical Savoyard dishes. The Cirque du Fer-à-Cheval Chalet Restaurant welcomes you to a magical place. You will be left speechless by the magnificent views... You can come here for lunch or just for an afternoon snack after a hiking expedition. Evening meals and banquets are available but only with prior bookings.

12 The 30 waterfalls of the Cirque du Fer à Cheval

A unique area with impressive rock faces, cliffs 2000 metres high, and hiking trails past numerous waterfalls. Some waterfalls at Fond de la Combe and Nants des Peres at Fer a Cheval are fed by glaciers.
If you begin at the bar/restaurant at Plan des Lacs and look towards the Pic de Tenneverge, you'll see two notable waterfalls below the Corne du Chamois: la Meridienne , and to the right of that, la Pierrette. This is also called la Fontaine de l'Or and is one of the highest. Further to the right, on the cliffs of Le Fer a Cheval, are other waterfalls, for example the Joaton, Pissevache, the Lyre (one of the most beautiful), and the Genette. Even further to the right are le Saint-Jacques, la Citerne, le Folly, and la Massue waterfalls.
Going in to the Fond de la Combe valley, to the left of the Corne du Chamois, there are many other waterfalls such as le Rejon, la Cage, la Scie, le Violon, and la Gouille.
Leaving Fer a Cheval and following the Giffre downstream youi'll find the village of Le Brairet between Le Molliet and Les Curtets. Above this is Le Dard waterfall.

13 Fer-à-Cheval toboggan slope

Let yourself go for some family fun whizzing down the secured toboggan slope installed in the Fer-à-Cheval Nordic area.

14 Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval / Passy Nature Reserve

Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval/Passy Nature Reserve, the biggest nature reserve in Haute-Savoie, covers a vast region and boasts two impressive glacier cirques (Fer à Cheval and Les Fonts), both bursting with spectacular waterfalls. Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval/Passy Nature Reserve, the biggest nature reserve in Haute-Savoie, is an exclusively limestone universe featuring a wide variety of forms sculpted by erosion: fissures, grooves, etc. It covers 9,000 hectares across different mountain levels: sub-alpine, alpine and nival, from the banks of the Giffre at 900 metres up to the top of Buet culminating at over 3,000 metres. This range of elevations and the diversity of terrains (wet zones, mixed forests, cliffs, grassy areas, etc., offer contrasting habitats that are richly populated with a wide variety of wildlife species.
From the forests to the highest peaks, approximately 800 plant species have been recorded in the nature reserve, including 28 different orchids! Sixt forest is dominated by beech and spruce, but only the most compatible plants can be found in the mountain pastures.
Because the habitat changes with the altitude, there is a huge diversity of animal species: deer, wild boar, marmot, mountain hare, etc.. Wild animals thrive in the tranquillity of the nature reserve: ibex, bearded vulture, rock ptarmigan and royal eagle.

To view real-time car park attendance, please click here: <a target="_blank" href="https://affluences.com/parking-de-sixt-fer-a-cheval">https://affluences.com/parking-de-sixt-fer-a-cheval</a>

2793 meters of difference in height

Maximum altitude : 1616 m
Minimum altitude : 440 m

Total positive elevation : 2793 m
Total negative elevation : -2793 m
Max positive elevation : 459 m
Min positive elevation : -426 m