CyclingHardBoucle

19 - Following the Loire

Start: Le Puy-en-Velay (Place de la Libération)

Following the Loire! A route for seasoned cyclists awaits you, with a variety of landscapes between Le Puy-en-Velay, Polignac and Saint-Paulien, then a detour via Bellevue-La-Montagne before rejoining the Loire valley through Vorey-sur-Arzon and then Lavoûte-sur-Loire.

Distance: 93.9 km
Elevation gain: +1575 m
Elevation loss: -1576 m
Duration: 5 h 30 min

Route on the map

Base map © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA): route licensed under ETALAB-2.0 via Données : Comité Départemental Randonnée Pédestre Haute-Loire · FFRandonnée · sportsnature.hauteloire.fr — sous licence ETALAB 2.0.

The feel of the route

Saint-Paulien, former capital of the Velay

More than two thousand years ago, after the Roman conquest, a town was founded under the name Ruessio, later Latinised as Ruessium. Former capital of the Velay and ideally placed between Le Puy-en-Velay and La Chaise-Dieu, Saint-Paulien has come through the ages and seen many transformations.

Its Michel Pomarat Gallo-Roman museum offers a journey through time through the eyes of an archaeologist who decodes the remains of the town. The museum becomes a dig site, a place of wasteland and ancient treasures: a mosaic, amphorae, tools, stones and jewellery.

The collegiate church of Saint-Georges stands in the very centre of the commune. This major building of Romanesque art in the Velay has been listed as a historic monument since 1840. It has kept its typically Velay Romanesque appearance. The commune is labelled a Petite cité de caractère (a small town of character).