In the footsteps of the Huguenots - 3 days

Presentation

This is a unique trip which brings together the scenic splendour of varied countryside with the discovery of the cultural and historical heritage of the Huguenots.
In 1685, Louis XIV of France (the Sun King!) revoked the Edict of Nantes which had provided freedom of religious conscience for almost a century. There followed interdicts and persecutions which were to push up to 200,000 protestants towards exile in Switzerland and Germany.
You'll walk along the centuries-old paths - many of them peddlers' ways and even Roman roads - which served as escape routes for the fleeing Huguenots. A visit to the Musée du Protestantisme Dauphinois provides the why and the how of the exodus.
The scenery, superb, combines beauty and variety. From the plain of the Jabron river through the narrower valley of the Roubion, you come to the "Bio Vallée" (region specializing in organic agriculture) of the Drôme. Indeed, in going over these little passes you cross a 'frontier' between Provençal Drôme with its typical flora and fauna and the Drôme Valley where lavender and olives become rare, replaced by beech and oak forests in all their splendour.
The route from Poët-Laval is the first stage of the protestant exodus stretching 1400 kilometres through Switzerland all the way to what was to become today's Germany.

You'll love

• visiting the unique Museum of Protestantism
• villages which remain the heartland of Huguenot Protestantism