RANDONNÉE - LA VALLÉE DE LA SEMOUSE

Access : From Remiremont, go to Plombières-les-Bains. Take direction Xertigny/Bellefontaine to go to Ruaux. Parking : Park in front of the camping of the center. Distance : 12 km / Duration : 3 h 30 / Difference in height : 200m / Marking : red ring. 1) Departure in front of the campground in the center of Ruaux. Go up the main street and turn left at the post office street. 2) After the last houses, go down a grassy path surrounded by meadows. 3) Cross the hamlet of Côte Levée by a tarred road. 4) Leave the road by a dirt track on the right just at the edge of a small beech wood. Go down to a crossroads and continue along the rue du Crime which is in fact a peaceful forest path covered with humus (ruins with cellars testify to an ancient habitat) 5) At the hamlet of Clairefontaine, go into the forest on the left by a skidding track which takes opposite the house n°405. A sign indicates a shortcut back to Ruaux by the road. Continue straight ahead until you reach the modest remains of the Château des Fées (the fairies would never have finished the work). The trail can be very muddy in bad weather. Reach the left bank of the Semouse by a path that leads to a ford. A narrow track with little traffic allows to go up this left bank. 6) A round trip on the left offers a view on the hamlet of Semouse with the castle of the forge masters and its chapel. Continue by going up the hill by the old railroad of the tacot replaced by a forest road (a tacot with narrow gauge connected the factories of Plombières and Semouse). After a series of bends, follow a path parallel to the tacot track. Take for a moment the D20 in the direction of Plombières. 7) 400m after the crossroads with the D20 bis, take the first path on the right. Cross an asphalt road, drive another 500m before turning right towards the village of Ruaux.