The best traffic-free bike rides around Vivières

Peace and serenity await you at this natural site, which is the starting point of the Ourcq Canal.

-1552 Purchase by Jean d'Estrées. -1552-1575 Construction work on the current château. -1573 Birth of Gabrielle d'Estrées in Coeuvres-Valsery. -1575 Death of Jean d'Estrées, grandfather of Gabrielle d'Estrées. -1590 Visit of Henri IV to Coeuvre-Valsery, where he met Gabrielle d'Estrées. -1739, The degraded château passed to the Le Telliers. -1793-1795 Sale as national property, demolition, and division of the estate. -19th century, purchase by the Berthier de Sauvigny family, who carried out extensive restoration work at the end of the 19th century. -1918 Bombings during the Battle of the Marne. -Around 1920, restoration work as war damage. -1953 Sale to the municipality of Madeleine-lès-Lille, which established a summer camp there. -1974 Conversion into a retirement home.

Inside this pavilion, a large room adorned with a neo-Renaissance fireplace, black and white floor, beamed and joist ceiling decorated with paintings and coats of arms, and low paneling. Two other rooms. A stone spiral staircase. Upstairs, a large, undecorated room, two other rooms. A large attic. On the southeast side, a superb cryptoporticus on which the wooden gallery may have stood, comprises a series of vaulted rooms, including the large kitchens with their superb stereotomy. Beautiful stone slab floors. A second basement level houses flooded galleries. Remains of the staircase pavilion with two semicircular bays, a straight staircase with a ramp under a semicircular vault. To the northeast, the outbuildings wing, largely rebuilt after the First World War, in the center, a porch dwelling topped with a hipped roof, adjoining a staircase turret topped with a dome. Inside, there are a few rare original features, a stone spiral staircase, and a neo-Renaissance fireplace. A lovely volume on the first floor of the porch. Character: Gabrielle d'Estrées. Born in Coeuvres-Valsery in 1573, died in Paris in 1599. A woman with a tumultuous life, whose mother was already described as frivolous, the family of seven sisters was called "the seven deadly sins" by Madame de Sévigné, the father saying that Coeuvres-Valsery was "a rabbit hutch for whores." The family had great social ambitions, and she already held important offices and positions. Gabrielle met King Henry IV at Coeuvres-Valsery in 1590, through her lover. The King courted her ardently, returning especially to Coeuvres-Valsery; after six months, she yielded. He wanted to marry her, even going so far as to announce their marriage publicly at a celebration at the Louvre on February 23, 1599. She died shortly thereafter, on April 10, 1599, carrying the child she had with Henry IV, likely from the effects of her pregnancy, although she showed every sign of poisoning, which long cast doubt on the cause of her death. Henry IV showered the d'Estrées family with titles and offices. Gabrielle's father, Antoine d'Estrées, was Governor of the Île-de-France; her brother, François-Annibal, Bishop of Noyon and French Ambassador to Rome; her sister, Abbess of Maubuisson. Historical origins: -Villiers family

Hello, Here is the true story of the Château de Coeuvres. For your information, I was born and lived for 20 years in a house opposite Gabrielle's pavilion! Meeting place of Henri IV and Gabrielle d'Estrées in 1590 - An original and dreamlike Renaissance Mannerist festive castle, built for the Dukes of Estrées in the mid-16th century, completed around 1575. Henri IV met Gabrielle d'Estrées there in 1590, the date of the beginning of their romantic and tumultuous affair. Six hectares of land. Although it has the appearance of a fortress, it is a pleasure castle, and more precisely a festive one, given its off-center layout characterized by a small, off-center main building, the presence of four imposing pavilions, and a possibly missing large gallery to the southwest. The ambitious d'Estrées family, which included a French ambassador to Rome, had a festive and social reputation, close to the royal family; Coeuvres-Valsery was elevated to a marquisate and then to a duchy-peerage for them. Of this ambitious complex, built in the second half of the 16th century, close to royal achievements, only vestiges remain, resulting from the demolitions of the Revolution and the bombardment of 1918, while the restoration initiated at the end of the 19th century had just been completed. The setting, curiously located on a marshland, confirms a Baroque choice, which can be explained by Mannerism, a 16th-century school of thought and art with a taste for the strange, the curious, the bizarre, and the original; sometimes going to extremes of incongruity and bad taste. Architecture: A square plan, marked by large dry moats spanned by bridges on both sides, flanked by slightly projecting square corner pavilions. The architecture is beautifully patterned with limestone, and the moat walls are slightly sloped. The most remarkable feature is the Henri IV pavilion to the west, with a square plan topped with a large hipped roof, adjoined by a square stair tower topped with a dome; on the side, a low wing. The windows are mullioned and transomed, with dormers featuring arched pediments. Beautiful moldings on the facades, and windows with bands.

The Château de Cœuvres dates back to the 16th century and was probably built by a member of the Estrées family, a nobleman renowned since the 15th century. In September 1914, German troops entered the castle, forcing Albert to shelter Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Prince of Saxe-Meiningen. Two weeks later, the Germans were driven out during the First Battle of the Marne, and the castle was occupied by the French 6th Army. General Michel Joseph Maunory established his headquarters there. During World War I, the castle was used by various regiments and served as a hospital. In 1918, during the Second Battle of the Marne, the village and castle were caught in the middle of intense artillery fire and tank battles, which completely destroyed them. Cœuvres Castle is currently closed to the public as it is now used as a retirement home. The west tower is empty. A beautiful castle. It must be special to live there as an older person.

Unfortunately, we have to disagree with Willem VS here: both the church and the keep are closed to the public. But the pigeons have certainly turned it into a giant playground.

This Green Route, built on the embankment of the former Compiègne-Soissons railway line, connects Cuise-la-Motte with Soissons and forms the main part of the cycle route that will eventually link these two important towns along the Aisne valley. The first section was completed in 2011 between Cuise-la-Motte and Courtieux. In 2023, several sections were built between Courtieux and Soissons.

A straight line between Silly-la-Poterie and Oigny-en-Valois. A suspension seatpost is a must here.