Pérolles: hiking around the lake

This 10 km loop allows you to go around the "inner lake" of Friborg while discovering a deserted and enchanting nature reserve. Fans of historical monuments will also find their account here since from the Tilleul bus stop, you cross the southern half of the city of Zaehringen. As for the positive elevation of 400m, it shows that this walk is not easy! You quickly realize this when you go up to the chapel of Lorette. Then, we follow a country path to Marly before descending to the shores of the lake (or the Sarine since we are talking about the same thing!). We then enter the nature reserve which runs along the fence of the old Pavafibre factory (relocated to France where wages are lower) and we find ourselves alone in the world in a setting reminiscent of prehistory: on the left hand the molasse cliff dug by the Sarine for millennia, to the right of the reeds as far as the eye can see. Then, the path (well marked!) goes up towards the engineering school before bypassing the university campus. It is then time to go down the Chemin Guillaume Ritter, named after the Neuchâtel engineer to whom we owe the construction of the Maigrauge dam on the Sarine and the first industrial zone on the Pérolles plateau (1870-1875). It is also on the dyke of this water reservoir (which was the first concrete dam in Europe!) that the footpath now passes. We then wander under the Romanesque convent of La Maigrauge (1255) and go up to the remarkable Cantonal Hotel (1522) by climbing the rue de la Grand-Fontaine lined with medieval houses. To end on a high note, cross the elegant rue Pierre-Aeby and arrive in front of the Museum of Art and History (MAHF) which notably houses the original statues of the portal of the unmissable Saint-Nicolas Cathedral (1490 ).

During my hike today, you might think that it was more of a city tour or something very urban, since on the map it is in the middle of the agglomeration of the city of Freiburg/Fribourg. Not even close. On paved paths you are only just before the Bürglentor to the dam wall of Lake Pérolles, i.e. only on the very outskirts of the city of Freiburg. Everything else is really very nice nature trails. You can park for up to four hours for free on the many fields just under the Pérolles Bridge in Marly, by the climbing walls on the bridge's pillars. The first part of the hike from Marly to Bürglen (Bourguillon) near the city of Freiburg takes place after a short section of forest path on a wide forest and meadow path below the cantonal road, which is also easy to ride by bike. Shortly before the Bürglentor you enter the city of Freiburg and with it the first residential quarters. The well-known Loreto chapel with its beautiful square is also at the Bürglentor. This place is often used for all kinds of photo subjects, eg for wedding photos of the bridal couple or simply as one of the hotspots of Freiburg to photograph the old town with its bridges. After this short stay, we went to the lower town (old town of Freiburg) past a piece of the city wall and with the Sonnenbergtor through the next city gate of the fortifications of Freiburg. Continue to Magerau Abbey (French: Abbaye de la Maigrauge), a nunnery founded in 1255. The nuns live there very isolated from world events, I know that because one of my grandfather's sisters lived there. When I was a child you also had the opportunity to visit the nun. But that was closer to a visit to prison. You were only allowed to enter the visitors' room and gifts were handed in at the entrance. She herself had never been outside the walls, except for medical emergencies. Shortly afterwards you reach the only 21m high dam of Lake Pérolles. Construction work on the gravity dam was completed in 1872, making it the oldest concrete dam in Europe. The Saane (French: La Sarine) is dammed over a length of 2.3 km. After 150 years, small islands have formed from the deposits at the dam. The dam was not only built to generate energy, but also to pump drinking water to the upper parts of the city. Incidentally, when I say energy, I don't mean electricity in the modern sense, but mechanical energy via belt drives from the time of industrialization. Parts of this facility are still visible with the remainder of a tower pillar just off the dam wall and a little further up with the tunnel hewn into the rock which also served for the belt drive, similar to a cable car today. The hiking trail around Lake Pérolles, which is again a nature trail from the dam wall to the end of the tour, also leads through this tunnel, first in the forest high above the lake and then after umpteen steps in the alluvial forest directly on the lake. The Saane is then crossed on a pedestrian walkway under the Pérolles Bridge, where my car was. That was a very nice hike in the Aglo Freiburg 👌🏻☺️

Wonderful tour always very close to the city, but still nice and quiet and in the countryside, you could also do it by bike, but a lot of stairs

The time and the speed are wrong. Recording error