The best road cycling routes around Le Plessis-Dorin

We went by very quickly

In the Middle Ages, Saint-Avit-au-Perche was a priory of the abbey of Saint-Calais, founded by Avit's companion. Today's church dates from the very beginning of the 12th century. It consists of a five-bay nave ending in a semicircular apse. It is covered with chestnut shingles. Several original windows remain; others have been reworked (including the first window, on the north side). This can be seen in the shape of the keystones. A walled-up side door to the south can be seen from the outside. It has an enormous mitre lintel. Inside, it has been transformed into a niche housing Our Lady of Lourdes. The apse is flanked by projecting buttresses. Those at the corners of the façade are from the 15th century. The western portal in a pointed arch is a 15th-century renovation that was completely redone at the end of the 20th century.

From its source to its confluence with the Ozanne, the Sainte-Suzanne covers 19.2 km and crosses 5 communes. From upstream to downstream: Authon-du-Perche; Beaumont-les-Autels; Coal pits; Les Altars-Villevillon; A glass.

Saint John the Baptist is considered the pivotal figure of the Bible, between the Old and New Testaments: the last of the Prophets, he is the precursor of Christ, the messenger who announces Him... His mother - Elizabeth, is related to Mary and both women meet while they are both expecting their son. We can only refer to the Gospel of Luke (1, 39-45) which powerfully depicts this touching scene, and which the Church has celebrated every year since the 13th century under the name of Visitation (May 31). Jean, as an adult, will lead the harsh life of an ascetic in the desert. He preaches, teaches prayer and proposes a baptism of conversion, while announcing the coming of “one more powerful than he… who will no longer baptize only in water, but in the Holy Spirit…” He himself will baptize Jesus.

The church has a very pretty Renaissance-style choir entrance. Certain stained glass windows, the woodwork of the choir, the altarpieces and the font are classified. The current church, rectangular in plan, replaced a 12th century building. The flat bedside and the north wall, equipped with Romanesque windows and slightly projecting buttresses, date from this period. It was rebuilt and probably enlarged in the first half of the 16th century. It was then covered with beautiful paneling, the beams of which bear the arms of the Vove, lords of Saint-Agil. The church is also flanked to the south by a seignorial chapel of two bays opening onto the nave with two molded semi-circular arches: its ribbed vaults, with eight ribs leading to the four peaks of a central diamond, are each decorated with four sculpted pendant keys, one of which also bears the arms of the Vove; the date 1547 can be read on its door. The church is currently preceded by a bell tower built in 1886 by Mr. Travaillard, an architect in Saint-Calais. A window to the south of the choir has preserved a partly restored 16th century stained glass window, representing Saint-Agil and Saint-Fiacre, and one of the windows of the seigneurial chapel has another, representing the Nativity, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi; the other window of this chapel has a modern stained glass window retaining some old fragments in the speckles. The choir was decorated with woodwork including an entrance arcade surmounted by a crucifix, stalls, a communion table and an altarpiece, the latter dated 1734. We can also point out a font decorated with balusters and of a skull (1552), the poetic epitaph of Catherine-Geneviève de Verthamont (1740), a painting representing a martyr (17th century), a Louis XV console and a Venetian glass chandelier.”

It was Saint Thuribe in the 5th century who dedicated the oratory that preceded the current church to Saint Pierr. Tradition reports that Saint Thuribe, Bishop of Le Mans, ordained on September 30, 490, came to preach Christianity in the region of Saint-Calais where he dedicated other oratories to Saint Peter. In Berofacium (Berfay), he would have "gone down" to a certain Gaïanus, holder of property or exercising military command. The roussard stone buttresses and the walled semi-circular bay bear witness to 11th or 12th century architecture. The Saint Pierre church was originally supposed to consist of a simple nave extended by a straight apse. Like many churches in the surrounding area, it was redeveloped in the 16th century (addition of the north side aisle) and restored around 1876, with the addition of the south side aisle. The work was carried out thanks to a bequest from Mrs. Mercent to the factory, an organization responsible at the time for managing the church's property. The exterior walls were re-coated in 1924.

The Saint Jean Baptiste Church was built in the 16th century and transformed in the 19th century.

Church of ancient foundation, mentioned around 969. The church, rectangular in plan, is composed of a main nave of four bays extended by a chancel with a flat apse of two bays; the nave is covered by hull paneling; the choir is ribbed vaulted (16th century); the main vessel is flanked to the northwest by a three-story square bell tower. In the 16th century, the main vessel was increased by an aisle of three bays following the bell tower, with ribbed vaults. The joining pillar between the choir and the first aisle bay is decorated with a small commemorative mural of the priest Lemaçon who embellished the church (1612).