La Planche des Belles Filles

Etymology and legend

The name Belles Filles literally means "Beautiful Girls", but is actually derived from the local plant life. The mountain is attested from the 16th century as lieu peuplé de belles fahys, a "place inhabited with nice beech trees" in the local dialect. Belles fahys later became corrupted into Belles Files, though there remains a nearby village of Belfahy. Meanwhile, Planche, "board", is derived from the nearby small town of Plancher-les-Mines.

A folk etymology, in contrast, holds that the mountain took its name from the time of the Thirty Years' War. According to legend, young women from Plancher-les-Mines fled into the mountains to escape Swedish mercenaries as they feared being raped and massacred. Rather than surrender, they decided to commit suicide and jumped into a lake far below. One of the soldiers then took a board on which, with his dagger, he engraved an epitaph for the "beautiful girls". A wooden statue, created by a local artist, is a reminder of the legend.

Cycle racing

From Plancher-les-Mines the climb to the finish at 1,035 m (3,396 ft) is 5.9 km (3.7 mi) long, gaining 503 m (1,650 ft) and averages 8.5% with a maximum of 14%, but with a short stretch from 22% to 28% near the finish.

Tour de France

It was the finish of Stage 7 in the 2012 Tour de France, 199 km (124 mi) from Tomblaine on 7 July. The stage was won by Chris Froome with his Team Sky team-mate Bradley Wiggins taking the race lead.

Two years later it was the finish of Stage 10 in the 2014 Tour de France.