This April, I took a trip with my dog to Alsace, and while we were there we stopped at Trois-Épis for a walk and a climb on top of a Jesus statue for a great view over the Vosges mountain range.
According to this French article the route is known as the “la balade digestive du dimanche” (Sunday digestive stroll), but we went ahead and did it on a Wednesday. Woops!
It’s not quite as impressive as the Jesus statue in Rio, but it’s definitely worth your time if you are in the area. For more information on this walk, please see the details below.
If you are looking to spend more time in the Alsace region, I recommend choosing Riquewihr as your base. I can recommend the hotel that I stayed at, if you’re interested you can find my review here.
THE ROUTE
We start at this parking lot which is free of charge.
From there, we need to make our way to the “Jardin du bien-être” from where the walking route to “Galtz” is signposted. In theory, we could drive closer to the starting point, but we are not allowed to according to the signs.
So instead, we walk up Rue du Ch. Albert Salzmann, then turn left onto Chemin de Galtz and keep walking until we reach the jardin. That’s when we find the first sign post showing the “Galtz” route. As you can see, it says “facile” which means easy, so I thought “great!” and promptly followed the wrong, more difficult trail.
I took a picture on the way back to show you exactly which is the easy path and which is the slightly harder and longer path, so that the same thing does not happen to you.
The easy path takes you directly to the Jesus statue via a short, not very steep uphill walk on a wide path. If you don’t fancy a longer walk and just want to enjoy the view, go ahead and choose this path!
If you want a slightly longer and slightly more difficult route through smaller trails in the forest, follow the path on the right. If you do that, please make sure to keep an eye out for the route signs. It takes about 30 mins to reach the statue if you stay on-route, but it is very easy to get off-route and get lost in the forest.
I got off-route once because I missed a sign and then asked two French ladies for the way.
They promptly pointed me in the wrong direction and told me they were going to the Jesus statue too. I figured out that I was going completely wrong and eventually got back on route though.
Later I found the women again as I was leaving the statue, while they were just arriving. So they were lost too. Again, it’s easy.
Another time I nearly missed my way because I found a sign post but it did not have a sign for my route. I walked the same way back and forth twice to make sure I was on route. Eventually I found the next marker on the back side of the tree…
Lesson: The signs are really hidden sometimes, so if you are not sure, make sure to look closely at all the trees, from all sides, to find your marker!
Eventually, you will reach the Jesus statue and it will all have been worth it!
While the view from the bottom of the status is already nice, you can actually climb up the statue through an interior staircase, and yes, this is officially allowed.
So go ahead and get up there!
The view from above is fantastic and even my small dog was tall enough to get a good look in.
You can see the Vosges mountain range as well as many of the small villages in the Alsace region. There is also an explanatory board that points out what is what. Very nice.
From the statue, we then followed the easy path back basically by chance. I laughed when I got back to the first crossroad and figured out why my “easy” route was not easy…
HOW LONG IT TAKES AND WHO IT’S FOR
The easy route is very quick, you can just go see the status and come back in 20 mins if you wish to. However, I would actually recommend taking the medium route on the way there and then the easy route back. Including some allowance for getting lost as well as taking pictures, this route took me about one hour.
The easy route is doable for most people, but I would not advise it with a pram because the terrain is quite rocky. The medium route is a little steeper in parts and also has narrower paths. At one point, we had to climb over a fallen tree too. So for that one, wear proper shoes for sure!
THE BOTTOM LINE
This is a nice route to do with your dog and get rewarded with a beautiful panorama. If you’re in the area, consider taking a detour to Trois-Épis for a visit to Jesus!
A trip with my dog 