Bellegarde: La Madone, Rhône Panorama and Heritage

Bellegarde offers a range of ways to shape your trip: heritage around La Madone and Saint-Vincent de Broussan, a cycling route between two marinas, trails through vineyards and activities involving aromatic plants. If you are looking for a hotel in Bellegarde, you can first consider which of these interests you want to shape your stay. The places and activities below offer practical ideas for your trip.

La Madone and historic sites

The La Madone site, the location of the château, is open to the public. Check access locally before you arrive. From the site, panoramic views extend across the Rhône plain, taking in Beaucaire, Les Alpilles, Fourques, Arles and St Gilles. On a clear day, the panorama stretches even farther. A visit therefore combines a view of the site with a far-reaching perspective across the landscape.

The Tour de la Madone is part of the story: it was part of the larger 13th-century fortified complex of Castrum Bellae Gardae. Another heritage site is the Romanesque chapel of the Priory of Saint-Vincent de Broussan. It is located in Bellegarde on the Way of St James. Every summer in August, the chapel hosts a concert as part of the “Musique et vieilles pierres” festival. If you would like to plan around the festival, check the dates for the relevant year.

Cycling, walking and scenery

The Voie verte Beaucaire–Bellegarde connects the marinas of Beaucaire and Bellegarde. It is an easy 11.6-kilometre cycling route. The Port de Bellegarde is a marina with 70 berths. This gives you both a specific cycling connection between the ports and a port that can be a destination in its own right when planning your route.

For a different perspective on the landscape, try the Randonnée Autour de la Costière walk. It passes through the Costières vineyards and along the Canal du Rhône à Sète. An audio guide for this walk is available through the Latitude Gard smartphone app. The app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play; check its availability before setting off. This allows you to factor the audio guide into your preparations.

The VTT L’Ecluse de Nourriguier mountain-bike trail passes flat ponds. Herons, grey herons and kingfishers can be spotted there. The two cycling routes offer different experiences: the Voie verte connects two marinas and has a specified length, while ponds and the possibility of birdwatching shape the scenery along the VTT trail.

Discover aromatic plants

Un Mas en Provence offers tours about the organic cultivation of aromatic plants such as lavender and everlasting flower, and how they are processed into essential oils. You can visit the garden and watch a distillation. The workshop adds practical steps: participants hand-pick aromatic plants in a flowering lavender field; the workshop also includes steam distillation using the on-site still.

The tours and workshop have different focuses. The tours explore cultivation, the garden and the process of making essential oils. The workshop includes hand-picking plants in the lavender field and steam distillation. If you are interested in aromatic plants, you can choose between an overview of cultivation and processing and these specific hands-on activities.

When planning your trip to Bellegarde, you can choose heritage, different ways to explore the landscape, or plant-related activities as separate interests. Use the focus that appeals to you most to tailor your hotel search to the purpose of your trip.

Discover more destinations: Cardet, Saint-Just-Et-Vacquières, Rousson, Salazac, Alès, Castelnau-Valence, Garrigues-Sainte-Eulalie, Euzet.

For the broader travel overview: Gard.