The best walks and hikes around Bérus

Very pretty place, nicely designed. Unfortunately, it's overcrowded with tourists. Perhaps a good stop on a hike.

very varied and pleasant hike

Beautiful little village. Would also have been ideal for hiking.

The Saint-Léonard church takes its name from the hermit Saint Léonard de Vandoeuvre. The latter, born at the end of the 5th century, left his family to serve God and settled in a place called Vandoeuvre, in Saint-Léonard-des-Bois, where he lived in austerity for several years. Joined by a few disciples, he built a monastery protected by King Clotaire. The relics of Saint Leonard, who died in 570, were transported in 868 to Corbigny by the monks of Vandoeuvre to preserve them from the Normans. Part of these was undoubtedly returned around 1025 thanks to the second lord of Alençon, William I, and deposited in an old chapel dedicated to Saint Martin located on the site of the current Saint-Léonard church. This saint is often invoked to cure deafness. A first Saint-Léonard church, attested between 1160 and 1182, was probably built very close to the Saint-Martin oratory. This disappeared around the middle of the 13th century in forgotten circumstances, but parish life remained concentrated in the chapel until the end of the 15th century. It is on the latter that the current church was built, in tertiary ogival style and flamboyant Gothic interior, by Duke René d'Alençon and his wife Marguerite de Lorraine. Most of the work took place from 1490 to 1505 and it was this same year that the building was placed under the name of Saint Leonard de Noblac, a character then more popular than Saint Leonard de Vandoeuvre. On the stained glass windows of one of the eleven side chapels, which was for a certain time dedicated to Louis IX, ancestor of the counts and dukes of Alençon, and on the walls, appeared the coats of arms of the houses of Alençon and Lorraine, today now disappeared. It was in this chapel that the duchess and the duke attended services and in which a fireplace was built for them which no longer exists. After René's death, his heart is placed in a lead box, itself in the shape of a heart, covered with a stone. When around 1510, René's heart was transferred to the church of Saint-François de Mortagne, the empty box was left in his vault. In 1776, the stone, which also bears the imprint of a heart, was removed, then put back in its place, and this imprint, erased by the friction of the feet, no longer exists except in memory. In 1562, the church was pillaged by Protestants. At Easter 1645, Hertré's granite vault collapsed. Replaced by a simple plaster cradle, it was not until 1836 that a new Gothic style vault was built. The main door was built in 1663 and the clock was installed in 1727. Until 1789, this church depended on Notre-Dame and did not have a baptismal font. The carved wooden altar and pulpit, two side consoles and some mostly modern stained glass windows, deserve the tourist's attention. The Saint-Léonard church, restored in the 17th-18th centuries, then completely refurbished in the 19th century by the architect Isidore Dédaux, is classified among the historic monuments.

beautiful region

Charming city of character. I highly recommend. On the other hand, the positive altitude difference is unavoidable since the village is in a hollow with significant cliffs around it.

Starting from the center of the village and crossing the bridge to this point, remember to look back and appreciate the view of the village and the church towering above you.

Céneri, then cardinal of Rome, deacon and preacher, undertook around 669 to build a first wooden building that he dedicated to Saint Martin. It was in this church that Céneri was originally buried. The tomb generating miracles, the church soon took the name of its founder, to whom the people awarded the title of saint. This name became that of the village grouped around the Benedictine abbey that surrounds the church. Two centuries later, the Normans made incursions into the region and destroyed the original church. Thus for a long time there was no church in Saint-Céneri. It was in 1089 that the construction of the current church was undertaken. It was completed in 1125 but underwent several modifications and restorations until the beginning of the 20th century. The end of the 19th century saw the arrival of painters and a new life linked to artistic activity began for the village. The beauty of the landscapes and the quality of the light inspired artists such as Corot, Courbet, Harpignies, Cogniet, the Veillon brothers, Mary Renard and Paul Saïn. This artistic activity lasted for more than half a century. It ended on the eve of the First World War and was reborn in the 1950s and 1960s, giving new life and tourist appeal to this small town, ranked among the most beautiful villages in France.