Balade autour de Pirajoux

Starting from Pirajoux, a small village on a hill overlooking the Solnan valley, this walk along the Bresse paths also tells the story of the border between the Bresse region and the Revermont mountains.

Pirajoux was once a tollbooth between Bresse and Franche-Comté.
This privileged position allows our commune to have the appellation of controlled origin for the butter and the cream of Bresse, the blue cheese of Bresse and obviously the poultry of Bresse, but also the cheese of county.

This 11.800 km long circuit, which starts at the church square, follows a communal road from the east, which was established on an ancient Roman road from Mâcon to Besançon, passing through Montrevel and Coligny. This road is located between the cemetery, where the old church was built, and the fortified house called the Castle, which was the residence of the lords of PIRAJOUX.
The first hill crossed by this road is that of Montrichard which was still a fief in the 17th century, and formed with PIRAJOUX, the parish of PIRAJOUX. From this hill, we overlook the valley of the SOLNAN, natural limit between Bresse and Revermont.
The hiker will be able to discover this very fishy stream between the FAY mill and the PERTHUIZET mill. The latter was built during the revolution, on a plot of land called "le pré de la borne", probably in reference to the presence at this place of a boundary marker delimiting the Bresse and the FRANCHE COMTE.
The path arrives at the wooden bridge that connects the communes of SALAVRE and VILLEMOTIER. It then goes eastward and follows the railroad track in an undergrowth. A bridge built of cut stones gives a glimpse of what was, until about 1880, the road from PIRAJOUX to COLIGNY.
The BOCARNOZ stream, a tributary of the SOLNAN, and the hiking trail have a common itinerary up to the foot of the ARGUIZY hill, from the top of which you can see on both sides the green pastures where the Montbéliarde cows graze, whose milk is used to make the Comté cheese.
The pond of the Marcs, its reception area, could be an ideal place for a small pause, before reaching the mill of Romanèche, last of its kind to still function thanks to the hydraulic energy.
Upstream of the mill, you will cross the wet meadows of the SOLNAN before climbing the gently sloping hillside of the Arbillats, the last relief of the Bresse region, from where you can see the land used for cereals and poultry and cattle breeding. The hiker will be delighted to contemplate the panorama on the Revermont until the return to the initial point.