The best traffic-free bike rides around Forêt de Fréteval

path completely destroyed by logging

The Saint-Barthélémy church dates from the 12th century but was restored and enlarged in the 17th and then in the 19th century. The elegant bell tower, formed of a square tower, becomes octagonal at 20 m high. Small loophole-type windows light the belfry. It is topped by a dome, itself topped by a campanile and a lantern. It is considered a case study by schools of architecture. This church also contains several movable objects classified as Historic Monuments including Christ on the Cross, a polychrome wooden statue from the 17th century, two oils on canvas from the 17th century, a funerary plaque from 1674 by Michel de Verthamon, Knight of Malta, in stone and marble (epitaph in Latin and coat of arms) and a bronze bell, tuned in F, from 1580.

This church in Romilly-sur-Aigre was dedicated to Saint Peter (Saint Pierre). Simon, nicknamed Peter (Rock), was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee when he - together with his brother Andrew - was called by Jesus Christ to be "fishers of men". According to Catholic understanding, he is the supreme apostle, and the two millennia-long line of popes - currently Francis - are his successor. On statues and paintings, Peter is almost always depicted with two keys in his hand; this attribute refers to the biblical saying in Matthew: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Chapter 16, verse 19). Peter and Paul are also known as the “Princes of the Apostles”; their common feast day in the saints' calendar is June 29th.

super pleasant rolling limestone path

At the end of the 15th century, a first construction project made it possible to rebuild this church dedicated to Saint Peter. The current building consists of a nave, a choir bay and a three-sided apse. The bell tower was probably built at the beginning of the 20th century. The peculiarity of this building lies above all in the facade framed by two corner towers from the 18th century. Inside the porch, on the ground floor, you can still admire the old 16th-century gabled gate and two large western Gothic bay windows. Source: https://www.sauvegardeartfrancais.fr/projets/romilly-sur-aigre-eglise-saint-pierre/

The house of La Rochefoucauld is one of the oldest families of the French nobility. In 1863, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld undertook the construction of a magnificent castle in the middle of the forest of Gaudinière. The castle was bought in the early 1920s by a wealthy Armenian merchant from New York, who wanted to organize a reception center for orphans from Armenia. Chance made that this castle was chosen, and transformed to accommodate a hundred children. After long and expensive development work, the center worked in good harmony with the surroundings, including the village of Ville aux Clercs. The estate created its own resources and even provided a profession for the accommodated teenagers. The castle experienced several fire alerts at the end of the 1920s. On Saturday November 17, 1934, around 9:30 am, an employee of the estate saw smoke emanating from the roof on the northeast side. Firefighters from neighboring towns rushed to the scene. They could not contain the fire, but a lot of furniture, and objects were saved from the disaster. The investigation concluded that there was a short circuit in the attic. The residents were housed in the redeveloped outbuildings, but their situation could not last like this. The New York patron, after two years of study and reflection, preferred to shift his efforts to the Armenian communities in Greece, and more recently in 1991 in Syria and Lebanon. The domain was then sold for a few thousand Francs between the years 1937 and 1938. It is a company, a subsidiary of the "Mines de Lens" in the north of France which bought the entire domain to reforest it, in order to s '' supply mine poles. The ruins were then demolished, dispersed, even looted.

In Romilly-sur-Aigre I thought for the first time that I was going to a castle. So I felt the stem. Then I was safe in the church. Everything was like a harvest thanksgiving. Very inviting.