The best traffic-free bike rides around Erceville

The Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais church of Léthuin is a religious monument located in the commune of Léthuin, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. The available data does not specify its period of construction or its detailed history, but its existence testifies to the local architectural and spiritual heritage. Parish churches, like the one in Léthuin, played a central role in the life of rural communities. They served as a place of worship, gathering and social cohesion, often reflecting the evolution of religious practices and construction techniques through the centuries. In Centre-Val de Loire, these buildings were also identity markers of the villages, integrated into the landscape and daily life.

The church of Châtenay, which stands near its cemetery in a modest village in the Beauce region, is placed under the invocation of Saint Sulpice. Its construction could date from the 16th century. Behind a porch tower that rises majestically at its entrance, a rectangular nave of four bays serves as both nave and choir, ending in a flat chevet; an appendage to the east serves as a sacristy. A seigneurial chapel opens on the north side of the choir. To the south, a side aisle with its own entrance was built in 1720, the date when the tower was also supposedly raised. This two-story tower, covered by a gable roof, is built on a square plan, the second story set back from the first and pierced on each face by two semicircular bays. Inside, the nave is covered with a wooden cradle vault with exposed tie beams, the side aisles being rib-vaulted. Large pointed arches separate the nave from the south side aisle. On the eastern wall, large pointed bays have been walled up for the presentation of the large altarpieces. Buttresses with glacis, thick but narrow, reinforce the side walls at the level of separation of the bays, as well as at the chevet. The Sauvegarde de l'Art Français paid a sum of 75,000 F in 1993 to ensure the waterproofing of this building.

The Saint-Pierre d'Ardelu church is a religious monument located in the commune of Ardelu, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. Although its existence is attested, the available sources do not specify either its period of construction or its detailed history. This type of building, typical of the French countryside, generally served as a place of worship and gathering for the local community. In rural regions such as the Centre-Val de Loire, parish churches played a central role in daily life. They were often the heart of religious, social, and sometimes administrative activities. Their architecture reflected local resources and know-how, while meeting the spiritual needs of the inhabitants.

The nave dates from the 13th century, the sacristy from the 18th. Of very simple construction, the church nevertheless contains masterpieces. First, an antependium in painted Cordoba leather, representing Saint Médard; classified as a historical monument, just like the bells. A wooden cabinet from the 13th century containing a necrology. A painted wooden altarpiece from the 12th century, featuring two statues, repainted in 1893, representing St Médard and the Virgin Mary. A churchwardens' bench serving as an altar.

The door opening to the sacristy dates from the 12th or 13th century, attesting to the date of construction of the church. In 1250, a survey of the diocese of Chartres mentions the church. In 1886, the old shingle vault was replaced by a brick and plaster vault. The altarpiece and pulpit are from the 18th century.

Attached to the castle, the 13th-century church was burned down in the 15th century. Rebuilt, it was consecrated in 1539. The lords of Oysonville could pass from the castle to the church through a door opening onto a platform at the back of the church without mixing with the people. The altarpiece, the churchwarden's pew and the pulpit are from the 18th century. In the 19th century, the paneling of the nave was replaced by a plaster vault. Many tombstones are visible.

The bell tower and nave were erected in 1150 to house the relics of Saint Martin. The choir and side aisles date from 1519. At the beginning of the 17th century, significant ornamental donations were added, as well as two altars in the side aisles dedicated to Saint Sebastian and the Virgin Mary. Major renovations were carried out in the 19th century: the choir vaults were completely rebuilt in 1859. The stained-glass windows date from 1871. A baptistery outside the building was built to the north of the first bay of the nave. The bays above each altar are built in the neo-Gothic style. The original decoration, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, consisting of geometric elements in red, yellow, and black, has recently been restored. It is a tempera painting on a sand and lime plaster. It adorns the elevations and the vaults of the two lower sides.

Innocuous in appearance, Pithiviers station is totally different from all other stations in France, because it is infamous for having served as a base for the deportation of Jews to Nazi extermination camps. It was in the camp very close to this station and in that of Beaune-la-Rolande, of which nothing remains today, that 16,000 Jews (including 4,500 children) were interned, after being arrested, notably during the so-called "greenback" roundup and the Vél' d'Hiv roundup in 1942. Very few survived. Until the spring of 1942, families were sometimes authorized to visit internees, and these same places saw internees, families, their mail and packages arrive or leave in transit for months. The paroxysm of horror occurred during the summer of 1942 with the shift from a policy of racial exclusion to a policy of genocide. After the Vél d'Hiv roundup, more than 3,000 children will remain for almost a month, alone in these camps, separated from their mothers deported in previous convoys. All these children will be sent to Drancy and most will end up deported and exterminated. In the summer of that same year, there were 8,100 people sent directly from Loiret stations to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. These places have thus been witnesses to the tragedy of history and the implacable genocidal system put in place by the Third Reich. Because here we are at the heart of the process and the workings which made it possible to carry out the Shoah. This station also testifies to the policy of collaboration with decisions taken by the Nazis and implemented by the French administration. Now, no passenger trains arrive at Pithiviers station, and it has been transformed into a Shoah Memorial. Free, the museum is open Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. A few hundred meters away, in Square Max Jacob, located at the intersection of rue de l'Ancien Camp and rue Jules Morin, there are also several commemorative plaques linked to these events. Finally, to bring a less somber note, it should be noted that the station hangars also house a transport museum exhibiting some old locomotives and vintage wagons, some of which are visible from the road.