Ardon: Chapel, Trails and Stonecutting Heritage

Ardon offers a range of reasons to stay: botanical discoveries, a circular route, a race and heritage linked to the chapel and stonecutting. If you’re looking for hotels in Ardon, distinguishing between these themes can help you decide what you’d like to focus on during your trip. Route length alone doesn’t tell you which activity fits your plans: the circular route and the race have different profiles.

Botanical trails

The Sentier botanique d’Ardon starts above the town centre of Châtillon-en-Michaille, on the road to the Plateau de Retord. The walk is 2.6 kilometres long and takes 1.5 hours. Along the way, you can discover tree species from the region and elsewhere. The distance and duration give you a clear guide if you’d like to include a botanical walk in your travel plans.

The Arboretum d’Ardon trail offers another point of interest. At its start are century-old trees planted by schoolchildren to raise money for their school. This connects the trail’s natural setting with the story of a school fundraising effort.

Circular route and race

The Circuit de la Michaille is a moderate circular route covering 12 kilometres, with 327 metres of ascent. The route passes a quarry on the left and then follows the Chemin de la Combe de Vaux to Ardon. In clear weather, the Circuit offers views of the Alps and the Jura. This outing therefore focuses on the route’s character and ascent, as well as the views, which depend on clear visibility.

Compared with the Sentier botanique d’Ardon, the scale is different: the botanical walk is 2.6 kilometres and takes 1.5 hours, while this moderate circular route is 12 kilometres with 327 metres of elevation gain. These figures help distinguish the time required and the profile of the two routes.

The Tour des Prés is a separate activity: for the event on 22 March 2026, it was a 12-kilometre race that passed through the hamlet of Ardon, along the foothills of the Plateau de Retord. The final kilometre ran downhill on the road to the salle polyvalente. The course may change for future editions. So, although the Circuit and the Tour des Prés share the same distance, they are not interchangeable activities: the Circuit is described as a circular route, while the Tour des Prés is a race with a course specific to that edition.

The chapel and the history of stonecutting

The restored Chapelle Saint-Michel is in the heart of the hamlet of Ardon and is part of the heritage of the Pays bellegardien worth discovering. It offers a cultural point of interest in its own right, alongside the trails and race routes.

Stonecutters are also part of the hamlet’s history. The site of a former quarry in Ardon bears witness to their work. A 2013 account describes how particularly hard blocks of stone from Ardon’s quarries were worked by hand by villagers and then transported on horse-drawn trailers. These details give the area’s former stone extraction a tangible connection to craftsmanship.

When looking for hotels in Ardon, you can start by asking what will shape your trip: botanical discoveries, a circular route with specified elevation gain, or the cultural heritage of the chapel and stonecutting. The Tour des Prés is a different activity—a race—even though its 2026 edition also covered 12 kilometres.

Discover more destinations: Châtillon-En-Michaille, Ornex, Lhuis, La Boisse, Beynost, Saint-Rambert-En-Bugey, Chaneins, Civrieux

For the broader travel overview: Ain.