The best traffic-free bike rides around La Ventrouze

The original Marian shrine "La Salette," which is referred to in this patronal feast, is located in the French Alps (Grenoble district) and is an important Marian shrine, even if it has not achieved the same level of fame as other pilgrimage sites honoring the Mother of God—such as Lourdes in the French Pyrenees or Fatima in Portugal. The hiking highlight "La Salette" can be found on komoot at the following link =>> https://www.komoot.com/de-de/highlight/1861054

Church built in the 18th century 18th century altarpiece listed as a Historic Monument. A bell tower-porch marks the entrance to the façade. It has a portal. A triplet of louvres is located on each side, under the polygonal spire. Brick buttresses support the side walls and alternate with semicircular bay windows. The nave is unique, with enclosed pews. The paneled vault is barrel-shaped with transverse arches. The choir is adorned with a large altarpiece.

In the center of Randonnai, the 16th-century Saint-Malo church, enlarged in 1836, houses several works classified as Historic Monuments, including a classical altarpiece with paintings of Saint Andrew and Saint Sebastian. Funeral slabs serve as threshold steps. Inside, a plaque commemorates the departure of Pierre Tremblay (whose birthplace is in La Filonnière) in 1647 for New France. He is the ancestor of the Tremblays of Quebec and North America.

Since 1823, the commune's territory has united the former parish of La Trinité, which was under the bishopric of Chartres, and that of Beaulieu, under the bishopric of Evreux, located on either side of the Avre River, which marked the separation. The tall brick bell tower-porch was added in the 19th century to the older nave (15th-16th centuries?), rectangular in plan, whose wooden vault rests on an exposed roof frame. This modest rural church houses, as a counterpart to the Curé d'Ars, a 15th-century polychrome stone Virgin of exceptional artistic quality. The two sculpted doors of the sacristy come from La Trinité, as well as the engraved "flat tomb" attached to the nave wall. It dates from the 15th century. and the inscriptions are difficult to decipher: Jean Fillon, wearing a canon's hood and a chasuble, his hands clasped and his feet resting on two small dogs, is depicted in a Gothic setting with two angels, silhouettes of altar boys, and canons. Near the baptismal font decorated with three fleurs-de-lis is a large painting of Saint Gilles the hermit, with the doe lying at his feet. A beautiful series of stained-glass windows from the early 20th century illustrate scenes from the New Testament, and two others show Joan of Arc at the king's coronation in Reims, then taking communion in her prison before being led to the stake.

The church is closely inserted between the castle park and the houses of the village, which presents a harmonious ensemble of buildings from the 18th and early 19th centuries, combining flint and brick with lime plaster tinted with ochre. You have to step back a little to see its apse, the foundation of which probably dates back to the Romanesque period. Next to the entrance gable, dressed in Grison rubble, the bell tower was built in 1867 (according to the inscription preserving the names of the mason Gelin and the carpenter Hallier, with those of the priest, Abbot Porcher, the mayor, Viscount des Brosses, and the municipal councilors). The nave is extended by a rounded apse, with thick walls pierced by widely splayed semicircular openings, between which are placed the statues of Saint Sebastian, the Virgin and Child, Saint Michael and the dragon, and a holy bishop. On the "perque" (or beam of glory), a large Christ surrounded by the Virgin and Saint John. The transverse chapel, on the right, from the 15th or 16th century, vaulted with ribs resting on four pendentives with a central key carved like lace, was the seat of the brotherhoods. It houses the more recent statues of Saint Sebastian, the Virgin, Saint Michael and a holy bishop. The seigneury of Chennebrun, which belonged successively to Saint-Simon de Courtomer (1650), Caumont de la Force (1670), Grimoard de Beauvoir (1688), Laval Montmorency (1714), d'Espinay Saint-Luc (1765), etc., was acquired during the Restoration by Jacques-Alexandre Giroult des Brosses, whose father had been mayor of Dreux in 1771. In the seigneurial chapel on the left, inscriptions recall the names and dates of the members of this family linked for more than four generations to the life of the commune. We are grateful to them for having admirably maintained the castle, whose 18th century façade and the entrance to the park are visible from the gate. Their coat of arms appears on the stained glass window of this chapel, where we recognize in the center those of a Laval-Montmorency, Lord of Chennebrun, knight of honor of the Duchess of Orléans, master of the cavalry camp, who died in 1757, as indicated by his funerary slab on the threshold. The numerous 19th century stained glass windows with the names of the donors are worth seeing in detail. The one in the center, in the choir, lifts us to the sky with Our Lady of the Assumption. The statue of Mary, patron saint of Chennebrun, never ceases to watch over her church.

The church was built in 1865 by Father Migorel, who supposedly had three visions of a church to be built on a hilltop at the junction of three roads. It was consecrated in 1867 and opened for worship. The octagonal tower, erected in 1871, is decorated with polychrome bricks and topped with four turrets housing statues of archangels.

With a very simple plan, with its tiled nave and its small slate bell tower on the ridge, the church surrounded by its cemetery, set back from the road, overlooks the countryside planted with trees. The river is nearby, and its flowing water evokes that of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, as soon as we see the statue of the patron, Saint John the Baptist, in the choir. His arm raised towards the sky reminds us of his preaching in the desert of Palestine: "Prepare for the coming of the Messiah...". On the thin banner attached to his staff are written the words: "Ecce Agnus Dei", by which he already announced that he saw in Jesus the victim freely offering himself as a sacrifice for the Redemption of all men. Placed on the ground against the wall, a 17th century painting. depicts Jesus immersed up to his knees in the waters of the river, leaning with his hands crossed on his chest to receive the baptism of penance from the hand of John kneeling on the bank. We see “the Spirit descending on him like a dove” and we recall the words of John reported in the Gospel: “I am not worthy to bow down at his feet… I have baptized you in water; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.” Beside him, the angel wearing Jesus’ clothes turns his face towards a young child whom he guides with a hand placed on his shoulder, as if to teach him the profound meaning of baptism. Above the arch through which the nave opens onto the choir, the group of Christ on the cross surrounded by Mary and Saint John the Evangelist is a fine example of 16th century religious sculpture, faithful to traditional iconography. Similarly, at the back of the nave is the charming naive statue of Saint Fiacre: this young monk from Ireland loved to cultivate the vegetable garden of his monastery, near Meaux. Patron saint of gardeners, he holds his spade, and in the Perche region he was also invoked to cure various illnesses. More unique in style, the large Renaissance chest serving as a central altar was the former “work bench of the factory” reserved for the administrators of the parish’s resources and expenses. Let us admire the skill and imagination of the cabinetmaker who carved this series of full-length figures in oak under the arcades separated by “terms” inspired by Roman antiquity. Their distinctive attributes make us recognize Saints Christine, Barbara, Madeleine and Catherine on the front, and on the sides Saints Peter and Paul on the right, John the Baptist and Bartholomew on the left. Their silhouettes are more reminiscent of fairy tale characters…

In the nearby park shaded by large trees, the ruins of fortifications recall the memory of the six towers of the old castle built in the 11th century……. In the nearby park shaded by large trees, the ruins of fortifications recall the memory of the six towers of the old castle built in the 11th century by Geoffroy IV, Count of Perche, in order to control this border region near the Chartres region, Normandy, and the possessions of the Lords of Bellême and Alençon which extended as far as Sées. During the Hundred Years' War, Charles, Count of Evreux and King of Navarre, allied with the English against the King of France, seized the fortress in 1364. It was then besieged and retaken on behalf of King Charles V by his younger brother Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, using catapults that threw large stones to collapse sections of the walls. But after the English victory at Verneuil in 1424, they rushed to destroy Marchainville, setting fire to the town and the castle. The church, too, has experienced some vicissitudes. It occupies the site of a very old small monastery, given to the abbey of Saint-Evrouit by a certain Fulchierus of Chartres, who was chaplain to Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem and author of an account of the first crusade. The monks built the priory church in the 11th century, of which the thick right wall with its flat buttresses, the cornice in grison stone, and the support points of the descending roof, which housed a small adjoining cloister, still remain. The church was enlarged (end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century) along its entire length by a side nave resting on stone arches, whose voussures connect without capitals to octagonal pillars. On the unfortunate initiative of Abbot Fleuriel, this side nave was knocked down in 1723, and the roof of the church lowered. It was not until 1810 that a new priest, Abbot Dubois, had the four arcades of the current chapel of the Virgin reopened. The three other old arcades, still visible, remain blocked in the left wall of the nave. Unfortunately, on March 15, 1820, the shock of an earthquake caused the old square bell tower of the priory, which was located above the entrance to the choir, to collapse, which caused considerable damage. Thanks to the generosity of the inhabitants and the personal contribution of the Bishop of Séez, the church was repaired and a new bell tower was erected next to the entrance porch in 1824. On the classical-style altarpiece, a painting, dated 1949, of the Holy Virgin surrounded by angels replaces the painting of the Assumption hanging in the nave. The 18th century tabernacle presents a pretty wooden statuette of the resurrected Christ, with on each side those of a holy bishop with a kneeling donor, and perhaps a Father of the Church. Two pretty statues of Saint Lawrence and Saint Peter adorn the altarpiece of the chapel of the Virgin, where in the center appears the traditional image of Our Lady of Victories presenting Jesus as a child on a starry sphere that symbolizes the world. Above, appear God the Father, his arms outstretched, and the Holy Spirit. Finally, let us not forget the curious statue of Saint Louis with his scepter, presenting the crown of thorns and the three nails of the crucifixion, nor the ancient painting, in the nave, of Saint Eloi as bishop, with his anvil of patron saint of blacksmiths.