Hiking - Coligny and the Vergongeat plateau

On the Vergongeat plateau, you can admire the Bresse plain to the west, with the foothills of the Mâconnais on the horizon; to the east, in fine weather, the Alps and their majestic Mont Blanc. Renowned for its undergrowth rich in yellow daffodils, in spring you can pick your traditional golden bouquet.

Before leaving the village of Coligny, a frontier zone to the north of Bresse and the scene of many conflicts throughout history, don't forget to visit :

The automated sound exhibition of the Gaulish Calendar and the God of Coligny on the first floor of the town hall. Inhabited before our era by the Sequanes, a tribe descended from the Celts, Coligny owes its name to the Gallo-Roman era: colonia. In 1897, a farming couple discovered two essential items of evidence of this era in a field: the Gallic calendar, the most important Gallic inscription known to date, and a bronze statue of the God of Coligny. The original items can be seen at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon.

The Place des Tilleuls with its curiosity, the Aiguayoir: a large paved basin, measuring over 10m long, 5m wide and over 1m deep. It was once used as a bath for horses on the salt route. They would enter the water up to their bellies to wash and refresh themselves. Demonstrations take place at the old-fashioned Bresse fair on the 1st Tuesday in August.

Saint-Martin church dates back to the 12th century. Altered in the 15th, 17th and 19th centuries, it features a 46 m-high bell tower-porch. Note the design of the heart bays, the same as those of Ambronay Abbey and St. Jean de Maurienne Cathedral, whose bishop, Etienne de Morel, was prior of Ambronay and then of Coligny; and the 28 wooden stalls whose misericords date from the late

are listed on the Inventaire Supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques - objets mobiliers classés.