Trip Report - L'Échappée Jurassienne (GR59): Day 4

Another Sunday, another Jimney Journal post! This one describes Day 4 of my trip on the Échappée Jurasienne.

STATS

START: Arbois

END: Lons-le-Saunier

KM: 39.29km

TIME: 7:25:18

Another exceptionally long day... and yet I'd planned to do a lot more. The official route of the GR59 goes something like Arbois - Mesnay - Les-Planches-près-Arbois - Pupillin - Poligny - Passenans - Château-Chalon - Perrigny. Due to time constraints and difficulty finding accommodation I decided to skip the entire Mesnay-Les Planches loop and head straight down to Lons-le-Saunier (close to Perrigny).

I started out in Arbois and went up the road for a while to a small village called Pupillin. There's a cool little church there and plenty of caves des vins.

There were also some signposts and a miniature plot of vineyards describing the different kinds of grapes grown in the region.

(Note: As you can see the sky doesn't look too happy on those pictures. This was a worry the entire day. I really didn't want to do 40km in the rain and arrive soaking wet.)

After Pupillin (I was still fudging my route instead of following any GR59 signs...) I came to another stretch of green forest. This one also had a fort!

(It's a bit small but it was cool to see. It's an old Roman fort!)

And I also saw a deer. It hadn't noticed me (I don't tend to make a lot of noise) so I got pretty close-up before I scared it and it ran off.

(Speaking of scaring things in the wood... I met two other hikers that day and scared both! A man who asked me which was the way to Poligny -in French- and a woman who absolutely didn't hear me coming and almost jumped out of her skin. Sorry about that!)

This day was also pretty great even though I had to make detours from the GR59 just to get where I needed to be. I chose roads over forests at some point because as much as I love my shoes (Altra trail runners! I'll do a gear review at some point...) they are very thin and roots and rocks tend to hurt after a while. Besides I had to go 40km and I wanted to make it as easy as possible after the last three days from which I was still tired.

Here are some of my favourite sites from this day though.

About an hour and a half in from Arbois: Les Grottes du Pénitent

 And the steep climb right after:

 

 

 

(where of course it started to rain and got even more slippery than it looks...)

Fortunately the rain only lasted for about 5 minutes and it was very light. I was able to stay dry under the trees without having to take out my rain jacket. This was also about the time when I scared my second person of the day. I'd been walking normally but eating a crunchy bar in a noisy wrapper. I thought that'd be enough. It wasn't. The poor woman was trying to tie her shoes when I passed her with a happy bonjour and she startled like a cartoon character. (I'm actually really sorry. I do get scared of these lonely places myself and I can only imagine how her heart must've jumped into her throat at the sudden voice/person combination.)

(Note: It was eerily quiet most of the trip. I was hiking during weekdays and apparently at a time when not many hikers do the GR59 so these two hikers and the group of elderly hikers from day three were literally the only people I met (except in towns). At one point I heard a cuckoo in the distance who broke off suddenly when he noticed me. It was the kind of quiet where you can hear everything around you but also nothing except the strange buzz of bees and the silent breathing of the forest since you're far from civilization and most animals sleep during the day. It can get creepy! Though maybe's that's just me and my imagined cryptids.)

Anyway. I saw her a few times afterwards and she seemed to have recovered.

I'd by this point reached a kind of plateau looking out onto a town I don't know the name of:

And when I left the plateau behind and looked back I saw more grottes (caves) that I would have definitely explored had I known about them/how to get to them.

The next town (Poligny) was slightly bigger than the last. I'd say about the size of Arbois.

There were some shops and a supermarket. I considered getting some coke zero (as always...) and a baguette (as you do.) but I'm not the type of person who likes to stop frequently on hikes so ultimately decided not to. I regretted that decision only slightly because my backpack food was pretty boring and I'd have loved a fresh pastry of some kind. Then again. I always do like the smooth journey without stops better than any food. It was also about 10 AM at this point so a bit early for lunch. I'd woken up early again (though this time mostly because I went to bed at 9 PM!) and had made good headway.

After Poligny came some more vineyards and farmers tending them.

I walked on the road again rather than rejoining the GR59 because of the reasons listed above. I was getting a bit tired to and didn't want to waste my strength on needlessly twisty foresty paths with rocks and roots.

The next village I passed was Miéry. It's a pretty little village surrounded by fields.

 After Miéry I decided to leave the roads and go back onto the GR59 for a while... but regretted it when it was again some twisty forest paths. (Note: I don't normally hate on forest paths. I just felt like my feet were falling off or getting holed because of the long last few days.) So when another opportunity arose to get onto a road I took it and followed it Domblans instead of going to the Château de Frontenay. I'd have liked to see the château but... again. Feet. Tiredness. (Note: Ultimately I think this was the right decision. The château is pretty modern and while I'm sure it would have been lovely to see up close -I did see it from a distance- I'm mostly here for ruins. I'll go out of my way for any ruin - hint hint future blog posts!- but I grew up in a country with some modern châteaus myself so didn't really need to see it so desperately.)

Now. Domblans is great. It has some camping spots (basically just mown meadows but they're suitable!), a train station, and a supermarket where I promptly bought a baked-brezel snack and... you guessed it... a cold coke zero in a can. It also has a picturesque river running through it and an old(er) castle that was unfortunately behind a fence (but you could see it well enough from the road).

 After Domblans I followed the railroad tracks and passed two more châteaus and a small settlement on a distant hill.

Then it was back on the GR59. The GR crosses through a few pastures here and some lovely shaded beehives in very green meadows.

(Note: I was super tired at this point. I'd brought some sour-sweet lollipops from home and had to eat basically all four of them in the last two hours of this day just to keep up my spirits and willingness to walk.)

I had to go off the GR59 again because my end target for the day wasn't Perrigny (I couldn't find accommodation there) but Lons-le-Saunier.

I passed this little lake. The sky was a bit brighter here but quickly turned darker again as I returned to pastureland and wide open meadows. I won't lie. It was a bit scary out there all on my own with the potential of lightning descending on me in the empty and mostly flat land!

I also encountered a little mouse around this point! It ran out of a field to my left halfway across the street without noticing me. I stopped to let it pass and it stopped because... I don't know. Maybe it smelled me. Then it noticed me and turned around to flit back into the grass where it'd come from. Absolutely cute.

Two more pictures from the vicinity:

(I'd been reading Gone with the Wind and man... I know period houses don't look like this but I couldn't help thinking...)

And a cool fountain:

Another half hour after came my first view of Lons-le-Saunier:

(Note: I had to walk on a slightly busier 80km/h road here... which I don't like. So I jogged a bit since I was already wearing running shoes.)

This was almost the end of the day but it took me a long time to do these last 4km. I was so tired! My feet hurt and my legs were spaghetti. But I was also looking forward to Lons and the hotel I booked. The hotel had great ratings and I knew Lons was a bigger town with many opportunities for good food.

 

A bit later I finally arrived.

 

The hotel I stayed at is the Hotel Terminus. It has some 4.7* on Google Maps despite being very simple and it was hands down the best hotel I stayed in during the journey. The check-in was easy and the clerks spoke English. They were also super polite and friendly.

 

The room was great too... but I failed to take pictures because I was so exhausted. Sorry about that! I did take a picture of the pizza automaton next to the hotel (actually I do think it was part of the hotel) though!

 

(Note: Strangely enough these seem to be quite ubiquitous in France- even though they're not a thing in the rest of Europe as far as I know. I'd seen one on my GR34 section in April too but never before in any other country.)

So pizza machine and an awesome bed. It was super fluffy and comfortable. The curtains were great too and muffled the room in a very pleasant way. The first time I really slept like a baby in weeks.

 Thanks for reading again! Next Sunday we'll be travelling from Lons-le-Saunier to Doucier. Mostly on the GR59 so stay tuned! Follow me on Instagram for updates and bonus pictures/stories: @jimneyhikes

-Jimney