Massif de la Madeleine

The Madeleine massif lies between Saint-Michel-sur-Meurthe and Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, and culminates at 658 m altitude on the Hauts Champs. The massif offers hikers a host of starting points for forest walks. Under the cover of Scots pines, the Chaise du Roi, the Roche de Pas de l'âne (a curious engraved stone), the Roche du Saut du Cerf and the Pic Vert are just some of the remarkable rocks that line a natural hemicycle that bears a striking resemblance to the Pas de l'âne motif.

These remarkable rocks are evidence of the geological formation of the sandstone Vosges. The massif is thus part of the flattened, forested slopes and summits on conglomerate and intermediate sandstone of the Bundsandstein. The soils are sandy-loamy to sandy, sometimes stony, highly acidic and often podzolized.

Its history is closely linked to a leper hospital located on its eastern slope, close to the trade routes from the Lorraine plain to Alsace, via the Col du Bonhomme. These leprosy patients lived near the forests in huts of some kind, and worked as lumberjacks, schlitzers or even cowherds, depending on the season.

DATAtourisme France