Path of the Maquis

Depuis 1211 et jusqu’en 2001, des moines vécurent à Sélignac. Depuis la tête Béguine et les ruines du Château d’Arnans, deux panoramas sur la Chartreuse de Sélignac. Accès pédestre depuis le hameau d'Arnans.Dans un vallon entre Simandre et Corveissiat siège cette noble bâtisse. On la doit aux seigneurs de Coligny, qui avant de partir en croisade (vers 1200) soucieux de leur salut, donnent des terres pour construire une chartreuse. Respectez les lieux. Accès privé.

Chapelle gothique du 14e siècle au toit de pierre. Du haut de la falaise, on jouit, à plus de 250 mètres, d’un panorama sur le château de Conflans (13e) qui gardait autrefois la frontière comtoise, et sur le confluent de l’Ain et de la Valouse.Depuis la chapelle, partez à la recherche des ruines du château de Mont Didier du 13e siècle en cours de fouilles par des archéologues. Panorama remarquable. (Prudence recommandée) A proximité : Château de Conflans (propriété privée) flanqué sur un mamelon au confluant de la rivière d’Ain et de la Valouze.

14th-century Gothic chapel with a stone-tiled roof. From the clifftop, more than 250m high, you have a panoramic view of Conflans Castle (13th c.) built to keep watch over the borders of Franche-Comté and the confluence of the Ain and Valouse.

On the right bank of the Ain, in a characteristic meander between the villages of Corveissiat and Bolozon, a magnificent riverside site. Impressive color in high water. Pedestrian access from the Cize viaduct.From the viaduct, walk along the River Ain and its fishermen's huts. Next to a small stone hut just a stone's throw from the water, you'll discover a small stream that emerges from the rock to join the Ain. The "Fontaine Noire" is part of the ENS Haute Vallée de l'Ain, which will be awarded the "ENS" label by the Département de l'Ain in 2019. True natural and landscaped jewels of the Ain department, sites awarded the ENS "Espaces naturels sensibles" label are managed in such a way as to preserve the biodiversity they host, and developed for opening to the public (barring exceptions due to the fragility of the environments). Caving : During a survey of the banks of the Ain in 1976, the cave was discovered by speleologists. Robert Durand and Jean-Louis Fantoli explored 402m of drowned conduits up to a narrow laminar. On 05/06/1977, an interclub operation (Daniel Andrès, O.Bigot, Jean-Louis Fantoli and Pierre Licheron) found the continuation in the siphon and led to an open gallery ending in a hopper. The cavity is mainly composed of two parts, characterized by the existence of a siphoning branch downstream and a semi-active part upstream. The entrance basin plunges at -3 to the start of the gallery. After a low point at -7, the drowned corridor (2.5 x 5m), with its surprisingly flat, smooth floor and ceiling, rises again after some 50 m into a collapsed room, partly excavated at low water. Large boulders and slabs of rock block the passage, and thick clay deposits line the floor and walls at this point. Upstream, the conduit submerges completely, plunging to -10m. All along the way, stalagmites and stalactites testify to an exundated phase of the cavity, and remain one of La Fontaine's key sights. 170m from the entrance, a 2m-diameter shaft is carved out of the middle of the gallery, which extends into a 30m-long rolling mill. The shaft gives access at -20 to a lower gallery also linked to the rolling mill by an 8m chimney. Blades of erosion spike up the shaft to 280m, in a room at -18. There are two options: - at the back of the room, high up, a rolling mill at -10m exhales a perceptible current. - To the west, a high diaclase crosses the axis of the room at right-angles and opens out into the open. Halfway down, at -5°, a gallery extends for some 50 m to the open air, 350 m from the entrance. The gallery runs north for 284m. Overflow waters from the underlying circulation flow through it. It develops over a stratum joint (4 x 1.5m), intersected by numerous perpendicular fractures. A 6-metre drop precedes a lake with an impenetrable hopper at its end. Water temperature: 10°C.

LE SENTIER DE LA RECULÉE DE CORVEISSIAT IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED (municipal by-law attached to website). Public traffic is prohibited between the cave access path and the footbridge, until December 31, 2025.With its imposing cliffs and grotto, this retreat is one of the most remarkable sites in the Revermont region. Its porch is 30 meters high. Remarkable views. Guided tour in summer. Family-friendly mini-tour. The Corveissiat cave and retreat was awarded the "ENS" label by the Département de l'Ain in 2014. True natural and landscaped jewels of the Ain department, sites awarded the ENS "Espaces naturels sensibles" label are managed in such a way as to preserve the biodiversity they host, and developed for opening to the public (barring exceptions due to the fragility of the environments). The Ain mountains, generally limestone, are split, fractured, bent and folded on all sides. Over the centuries, run-off water has infiltrated the rock, slowly widening the cracks and gradually forming an underground network of galleries and cavities. These landscapes are one of the major features of Ain's natural heritage. On the surface, they model fissures, dolines, losses and chasms. A particularly rare fauna is associated with this type of landscape, including birds of prey and rock birds.

Vestiges du village disparu en 1936 et du château du 12e siècle des sires de Coligny, ancien castrum surplombant la vallée de l’Ain et le passage de Thoirette. Magnifique point de vue sur l'Ain (falaise à pic)L'ancienne forteresse de Montdidier a été construite entre le Xe et le XIIe siècle entre les actuels départements de l'Ain et du Jura, dans le massif du Revermont. La première mention du château date du XIIe siècle : le castrum montis dideri. Sans doute ancien site fortifié gaulois lors de l'âge du fer, Montdidier s'est ensuite mué en château féodal au cours du Moyen Age. Siège d'un pouvoir local important, le château va connaître son apogée sous la domination des ducs de Savoie au XVe siècle. En plein coeur de l'Europe médiévale, le fort a été l'enjeu de luttes séculaires entre la France, la Bourgogne, la Savoie et le Saint Empire Romain Germanique qui s'affrontaient alors pour la domination territoriale. Ces enjeux frontaliers sont d'ailleurs la cause directe de la chute du château au milieu du XVIe siècle. Quant au village de Montdidier, celui-ci sera réinvesti au milieu du XIXe siècle et ce, jusqu'à la seconde guerre mondiale. Accès pédestre depuis la RD.86 (croisement de Marsonna) ou depuis St Maurice d'Echazeaux

A fine example of 19th-century civil engineering, this railway and road bridge spans the River Ain, linking the towns of Bolozon and Corveissiat. Rebuilt after the Second World War (1950), it is 273 m long and comprises eleven arches on two levels.In 1865, the Conseil Général de l'Ain wanted to create a railroad line between Bourg-en-Bresse and La Cluse. To cross the Ain, the commune of Cize was chosen. Work began in 1870, and required extensive work on the foundations, including excavations at the bottom of the river. The materials used came from the immediate surroundings: gravel and sand from the river, stone from the nearby quarries of Bolozon, Grand-Corent and Corveissiat, and lime from Virieu-le-Grand and Le Teil. Construction was completed in 1875, reaching a total length of 269 m and a height of 52 m. The two-storey structure comprises seventeen semicircular arches: eleven upper ones for rail traffic and six lower ones for road traffic. The Simandre-Cize section opened on July 6, 1876, following completion of the Racouze tunnel and the opening of the Cize-Blozon station. The bridge was opened to road traffic in 1905. The single-track Carpathian line was operated until 1884 by the Compagnie des Dombes et des chemins de fer du sud-ouest, then by the PLM until 1938, when the newly-created SNCF took over. Today, the "Bourg-Genève" TGV high-speed train crosses the river via the viaduct. On July 12, 1944, French resistance fighters launched an action on the viaduct designed to cut off rail communications and thus slow the advance of the Germans. They placed explosive charges under one arch of the road and another of the railroad. The explosions were only intended to slightly damage the viaduct, but proved fatal, destroying it almost entirely. As the viaduct has no supports at its ends, its deck is supported solely by the pillars. In barely twenty minutes, the pillars of the mined arches collapsed, destabilizing the structure and causing it to collapse completely. The impressive quantity of rubble even altered the course of the river! The new viaduct was rebuilt almost identically between 1947 and 1950. A few modifications were made, however: the stone was largely replaced by concrete, the latter being reserved for cladding. The dimensions were slightly altered, particularly on the lower level, in response to requests from some mayors to widen the arched openings in the roadway.