Oye-et-Pallet: Circular Routes and Church Art

Oye-et-Pallet offers two specific starting points for planning a trip: circular routes with varying durations and distances, and architectural and art history. If you’re looking for hotels in Oye-et-Pallet, you can choose where to stay based on what you have in mind: a hike or exploring the historic details of the village. The two PR circular routes can be compared using their published figures; the Tour du Lac de Saint-Point is also explicitly classified as difficult.

Circular routes with different time commitments

The Grands communaux circular route is designated as a PR route and is 6.6 kilometres long. Its stated duration is 2 hours and 30 minutes; both the ascent and descent cover 191 metres of elevation gain. The route runs from the Doubs Valley across the plateau above it, through woods and communal land. Its specific distance figures complement a landscape that encompasses the valley and plateau as well as woods and communal land.

The Tour du Lac de Saint-Point is a difficult PR circular route, 21.3 kilometres long, with a duration of five hours and 330 metres of elevation gain on both the ascent and descent. It starts and ends in La Gouille in Oye-et-Pallet. You can spot Eurasian coots and grey herons along the shore. The comparison is clear when planning your day: at five hours and 21.3 kilometres, the Tour du Lac is more demanding than the Grands communaux circular route, which takes two and a half hours and covers 6.6 kilometres.

Saint-Nicolas Church: Architecture and furnishings

Saint-Nicolas Church brings together several features with specific dates. Its bell-tower porch dates from 1749. The furnishings include a polychrome and gilded altarpiece made in 1716 and listed as a historic monument. The ensemble comprising the high altar, tabernacle and retable was created by François Gagelin in 1716. The dates therefore refer to different features: 1749 to the bell-tower porch and 1716 to the furnishings mentioned above.

The stained-glass windows have their own place in time: they were designed around 1956 by Serge Rezvani and made by the young glass artist Paul Virilio, as he was then. Together with the dates 1716 and 1749, this establishes a timeline extending to the mid-20th century. The windows thus add a much later point of reference to the earlier dates.

Oratoire Notre-Dame des Côtes and the Doubs Valley

The Oratoire Notre-Dame des Côtes is an ochre-coloured stone structure standing 1.60 metres high. It is located 500 metres north of the village and a few metres from the chapel built in 1871 under the same dedication. The oratory offers panoramic views over the Doubs Valley and its meanders downstream from Lac de Saint-Point. The structure, its location relative to the chapel and the valley views are different aspects of the site: a small building with precise dimensions, a landmark dating from 1871 and a far-reaching vista.

Getting to the Grands communaux circular route

To reach the Grands communaux circular route, travel from Pontarlier via the RN57 towards Lausanne, then take the D437 and Rue des Écoles. Parking is available at Oye-et-Pallet town hall. Since route details, start and end points, access routes and parking information can change, check the details before setting out.

Discover more destinations: Saint-Antoine, Hyèvre-Paroisse, Flagey, Rennes-Sur-Loue, Montbenoît, Bremondans, Montbeliardot, Mamirolle.

For the broader travel overview: Doubs.