Espirat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Colline de Sion-Vaudémont
The highest point of the Moselle hills at 540 metres, the hill of Sion-Vaudémont, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle, stands alone above the Saintois plain, forming one of the most recognisable silhouettes of the Lorraine landscape. This outlier, the remnant of a limestone plateau eroded all around it, offers from its summit an exceptional all-round view reaching the Vosges on clear days.
The writer Maurice Barrès made it famous as 'the inspired hill', devoting a novel of that name to the mysticism and legends attached to this Marian pilgrimage site, visited for centuries. The Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Sion, the Barrès monument and the remains of a Celtic oppidum share this historic site, where hikers and lovers of views meet in summer and winter.
