Fontaneda, one row of houses above the Sant Julià valley

Fontaneda is one of those villages you can sum up in a single photo. A row of stone houses with slate roofs, all on the same side of the road and all looking out over the valley of Sant Julià de Lòria. Andorra Turisme puts the population at just under 150 and describes it as one of the places cyclists pass most, since it sits on the climb to the Coll de la Gallina.

Up the CS-140

You reach it from Sant Julià on the CS-140, and the drive earns its place in the day. At kilometre 3, 1,140 m up, the Coll de Jou viewpoint has Braille, tactile relief and QR codes, and looks over box scrub that turns from yellow to red in winter. It’s carrion-bird country, with kestrels and falcons all year and Egyptian vultures in summer.

A little further along the same road is the chapel of Sant Mateu del Pui d’Olivesa, which Andorra Turisme records as far back as 985 and counts among the smallest and oldest churches in Andorra. It served as the private oratory of the Cal Berenguer house, and its windows mark it out as pre-Romanesque. I’ll admit these pocket-sized chapels move me more than plenty of grand churches.

Sant Miquel, at the very top

The village church isn’t in the middle of things but a few metres higher, built against the hillside. Sant Miquel is Romanesque, a rectangular nave with a semicircular apse, and inside it keeps an altar table carved from a single block, once used to hold relics, and fragments of painting by the Master of Anyós. No opening hours are published, so I’d ring the Sant Julià tourist office on (+376) 744 045 first. From the terrace, the view of the valley is among the best in the parish.

On foot or by bike to the Gallina

The footpath to the Coll de la Gallina leaves the top of the village, waymarked with three yellow dots. It climbs through meadows to the track for the Borda del Gastó, turns towards the Mosseres stream and follows the Palleró ridge up through the woods. It’s 6.9 km with 605 m of ascent, graded hard. You come back the same way, or down secondary road 142 if someone’s waiting at the top. By bike, the classic ascent of the pass starts at Aixovall.

Wine to finish

Andorra Turisme suggests ending the visit at Mas Berenguer, one of Andorra’s newest wineries, with pinot noir, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc vines. I’d take it slowly and book ahead, and I’d do it on the way down rather than with the climb still in my legs. The rest of the parish’s wineries are covered in Andorran wine.