The best road cycling routes around Autry-Issards

The patronage of this cathedral in Moulins, dedicated to the Annunciation (or, in another spelling, the Annunciation of Mary), refers to one of the many feast days in honor of the Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Annunciation (liturgical name: Annunciation of the Lord) is celebrated on March 25th, exactly nine months before Christmas. It commemorates the message the angel of the Lord brought her: that she would give birth to the Son of God – Jesus Christ. According to the account in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, this occurred in Nazareth, Israel. There, on the site where this event took place – according to a tradition spanning some two thousand years – a large church stands, which can thus be considered the original patronal church for the title of this church in Moulins. ] ... The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth can be found as a komoot highlight at the following link =>> https://www.komoot.com/de-de/highlight/251260

Many animals find refuge in this imposing oak grove, formerly owned by the Dukes of Bourbon. It's a very pleasant cycle along this shaded road.

This ford, located a few kilometers before Moulins, can be very slippery. You arrive there after a 600 m descent at 7%, so be careful!

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Annunciation, the episcopal see of the Diocese of Moulins, was built in the 15th century on the remains of an original 10th-century chapel dedicated to Saint Peter. The oldest parts of the collegiate church are primarily built in the flamboyant Gothic style. It was elevated to a cathedral in the first half of the 19th century and then to a minor basilica.

The town of Souvigny was chosen by the Bourbon dynasty as the religious capital of its duchy. Thus, the commune became the necropolis of all the Bourbon lords.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation was built in the 15th century on the remains of a first chapel from the 10th century, which was dedicated to Saint Peter. Since 1817 it has been the episcopal church of the diocese of Moulins. The most important work of art in the cathedral is the altarpiece from around 1502 by the Master of Moulins. His triptych of Moulins shows the Virgin Mary in front of a rainbow on the central panel, also surrounded by the donor Duke Pierre II and Anne de Beaujeu and their daughter Suzanne, and is considered an important example of a donor portrait of the late Gothic period.

The fourth church in Villeneuve, work began in 1903 at the request of Father Dumas. In 1905 it was placed under the name of Our Lady of the Assumption and Recovery. The two existing bells in the bell tower come from the old church.

The parish of Bagneux formerly depended on the diocese of Bourges, and it is on its territory that the castle of Belleperche was located, now disappeared, but made famous by an episode of the Hundred Years' War: while the Duchess of Bourbon dowager was staying there, he was taken by fierce English truckers. Duke Louis II himself did not succeed in freeing his mother. The church, dedicated to Saint Paul, is a modest building with a single nave dating back to the Romanesque period, but remodeled in the 17th century. north side, asymmetrically. The choir is composed of a straight bay and a semicircular apse, decorated with an arcade made up of three semicircular arches framing the windows and separated by two miter arches. These arches are received on columns crowned with capitals with foliage or scales. The choir is covered with a continuous barrel vault, and the nave with an exposed framework; the columns supporting the triumphal arch were redone in the 19th century. Outside, only a string of billets decorates the apse. The hexagonal bell tower is made of wood, covered with chestnut trees and stands at the rear of the west gable. This is pierced by a pointed arch door and a small window to the south. An old wooden porch, probably built at the same time as the bell tower in the 16th century, was removed in the 19th century. The choir retains a terracotta floor bearing traces of yellow enamel, with rosettes formed by groups of four tiles, incised with circles. A double baptismal font, in Gothic style, and a mass foundation plaque from 1679 complete the current furnishings of the church, a processional cross from the parish being kept in the treasury of Moulins Cathedral. For the restoration of the exterior walls of the apse, the Safeguarding of French Art paid €4,000 in 2003.