The best road cycling routes around Cercoux

This cycle path connects Chantillac and Clérac on a perfect surface.

You have to be very careful with the roots of the acacias which lift the bitumen in places as well as the thorns of these trees. Otherwise very pleasant.

Attention! It has been permanently closed since February 2024, because it is too old. It will be dismantled in 2025, and rebuilt in 2028. The planned diversions go through Guîtres or Savignac-de-l'Isle.

This bridge is closed to all traffic

Consider deviating from the cycle path for a few minutes. Church your real the detour

Some sections of the track are damaged by tree roots and dangerous on a road bike. I often prefer to go by road.

https://www.abbatialedeguitres.fr The church of Guîtres is an abbey church; it is therefore the church of an abbey of monks (Benedictine). This abbey, of which only a few traces remain, is said to have been built by Grimoard and Raymond de Fronsac, sons of Hermengarde de Rochechouard, towards the end of the 11th century (between 1060 and 1080). The abbey of Guîtres was therefore dependent on that of Fronsac. The Romanesque style, which dominates the eastern part of the church, is proof that it was shortly after the year 1000 that it began to rise to the picturesque height where we can admire it today. In the Isle Valley, on a hillside where there were three fountains famous even at the time of the Romans (from which the name Guîtres is said to have originated), the Benedictines from Fleury-sur-Loire and Cluny laid the first stone of their abbey on the site of a chapel burned by the Normans. Their work lasted until the 15th century.

The church is in the form of a rectangle thirty meters long and ten meters wide, flanked by 4 buttresses, one of which is located on the north wing and the 3 others on the south wing, a bell tower and a small extension on the south west part housing a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Massive building, reinforced by buttresses, low and poorly lit, it has a facade with a Romanesque portal surmounted by a large rose window. This gate is made up of 2 straight legs, and a projecting coving made up of 3 semicircular rollers with a keystone. The oculus rose is surrounded by a frieze with a sawtooth motif. The porch opens onto a single nave 22 m long by 9 wide without side aisles. It is made up of 4 bays with semi-circular vaults. The south wall is pierced under the 1st bay with a large semi-circular arch giving access to the chapel. The north wall has a pulpit which bears a monogram which would be that of Louis XIV. The choir of the church, raised from the nave by 3 steps, consists of a flat chevet and a span of semi-circular vaults. The bedside wall is pierced at each end with a rectangular door allowing access to the sacristy. The old sacristy has just been refurbished and has a very modern look with paneling on the floor and ceiling. The chapel of the Virgin is located on the southern extension of the church. It measures 13.50 m long by 7 wide, and consists of a small single nave 10 m long by 7 wide and a choir with a flat apse. The floor of this chapel is 1.25 m lower than the floor of the church corresponding to the initial floor of the old abbey. Access to the bell tower is through a door located on the east wall of the nave of the chapel. It consists of 4 floors and a vaulted ground floor. The facing is made up of medium-sized cut stone for the ground floor and the 1st floor and rubble stone coated with brown lime for the 2nd and 3rd floors.