The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Maur-Sur-Le-Loir

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.

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 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...

Built at the beginning of the 20th century, it was consecrated in 1903. It replaced an old 12th century church, contemporary with a convent of which only the chapel dedicated to the three Marys remains today. It is decorated with stained glass windows by master glassmaker Lorin: three windows (on the right) are dedicated to the appearance of Christ to the Saints Mary and three windows (on the left) to the apparitions of the Virgin at La Salette in the Alps in Isère in 1846. The patron saints of the church, Saint Gervais and Saint Protais appear on the stained glass windows of the choir. In 2003 the centenary of the church was celebrated and in 2004, two glass roofs, made by the Petit workshops of La Bourdinière Saint Loup, were mounted on the second level of the nave: the resurrection of Lazarus and the healing of the paralytic. It preserves an organ from 1892, by the maker Louis Delierre, from Nantes. The church of Mignières receives pilgrims faithful to the three holy Marys of the Gospel (Marie-Jacobé, Marie-Magdeleine and Marie-Salomé) on May 22, July 22 and October 22.

Bonneval, nicknamed the little Venice of Beauce