The best traffic-free bike rides around Montharville

The Romanesque church of Saint George was rebuilt in 1540 after a fire destroyed it during the conflicts between the French, English, and Burgundians. It is said that the villagers took refuge in the church, especially in the tower, and that the English did not hesitate to set it ablaze. The two bells, dating from 1816, and a beam bearing the carpenters' names are listed as historical monuments. Exploring the village, you will discover several ponds and old water pumps, a Caesar's Way (Chemin d'Arcé), and a wood.

Saint Mames was martyred in Cappadocia around 1274: local legend has it that a saint offers a helping hand to cross the Loir. On April 17, 1707, thunder struck the bell tower.

The church consists of a single nave, extended by a single-bay choir, and a semicircular apse. Two canted chapels, forming a false transept, were added during this renovation. The church is dominated by a timber-framed bell tower that rises above the first bay of the nave. The gable of the western facade was rebuilt in the last century, an external wooden porch removed. The central axis of the current facade is punctuated by a semicircular door surmounted by an archivolt, a circular opening on the first level and a small window pierced in the upper part of the gable. On the north side, a highly raised stringcourse forming a cornice, resting on simple modillions, still survives in the upper part of the wall. Additional openings were added to the old, narrow, and uneven openings in the last century, in the nave, as well as in the choir and apse, to allow more daylight to enter the building. The interior of the church is covered with a paneled roof structure: the one covering the nave is believed to date from the 16th century. The entire structure has been given a coherent decoration, from the faux-stone plasterwork to the paneled vault, the furnishings, and the statuary. The church also boasts a 17th-century polychrome wooden statue of Saint Barbara. The Prunelé coat of arms appears at the bottom of the stained-glass window of Saint Louis and, outside, on a medallion on the apse wall. The Sauvegarde de l'Art Français (French National Art Protection Agency) granted €5,000 in grants in 2004 for masonry and roof repairs and the installation of drainage.

This church in Meslay-Le-Vidame, whose architecture reflects the formal language of antiquity, was dedicated to the patron saint of Saint Etienne. He was one of the first seven deacons of the original Jerusalem church and, according to the biblical accounts in the New Testament, the first martyr (martyr) of early Christianity. The church commemorates his death on Boxing Day, December 26th. As the Acts of the Apostles recounts: When Stephen recounted his vision of the open heavens, "And he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Chapter 7, Verse 55), the people were so outraged that they drove him out of the city and stoned him.

The Henri Ey Hospital Center is a departmental public health establishment, specialized in psychiatry, which provides a mission of prevention and reception, care, aftercare and reintegration in mental health in Eure-et-Loir. It provides care in adult, child and adolescent psychiatry, as well as a medico-social activity in the field of geriatrics and psychological and mental disabilities.

The Saint-André church burned down in the middle of the 19th century. The priest, forced to celebrate mass in a barn, opened a subscription in 1864, the church was rebuilt in 1865, according to the original plan, plus a transept. Bell tower-porch.

The Sainte Christine church represents a heritage of the rural and religious world characteristic of Beauce, the "breadbasket" of France since the Middle Ages. The Romanesque nave dates from the 12th century and was given a bell tower in the 18th century. The spire then peaked at 28 meters high, visible from afar from the surrounding countryside. In 1835, a hurricane damaged the roof of the bell tower. In 1893, lightning ignited the spire which burned almost entirely. The traces are still visible today. It would take almost 25 years for the church to regain its bell tower, reduced by half to 17 meters in height. The heritage to be restored is in line with the many religious buildings in this area such as the Saint Sébastien church in Baignolet, listed as a Historic Monument.

Unfortunately, the church was not accessible when I visited (mid-September 2024). You could only look in through a gate and the dance of death depictions on the left side were not really visible. In front of them were transparencies with skeleton drawings. Maybe those were the depictions...