The best traffic-free bike rides around Dornes

If you have a bit of time, you can easily rehydrate here.

Very nice restaurant on the canal.

This Church of Fleury sur Loire is placed under the name of Saint Julien, it is parish, and dates from the 12th century. The Saint Julien church in Fleury sur Loire is built in a cruciform plan, it is located in the center of the village. The Church is built in Romanesque style, it is finished with a semi-circular apse vaulted in the shape of a four-piece. Its choir and transept are barrel vaulted. The building has modillions which are simple on the part located above its choir, those of the apse are decorated with various sculptures. A small basket-handle door dating from the 16th century provides access to the south arm, which served as a stately chapel, a shield is carved above it, it bears three letters in Gothic style writing. S D B.” Its central bell tower is square, it is pierced on its four sides with double twin bays separated by columns with sculpted capitals. The bell tower of the Fleury church is topped with a pyramidal spire which is covered with slate. The church is supported by numerous buttresses, its roof is made of small flat tiles. The baptismal font of the Church of Fleury sur Loire has cut sides and dates from the beginning of the 16th century. The Bell Tower, the choir with its apse (cad. B 17) are listed as historic monuments by decree of April 29, 1971. The nave extends over four bays with ringed columns with flat or sculpted capitals, supporting the pointed arches of the vault

Church of Chassenay is a parish church of Saint Germain, it was built in the Romanesque period of the 12th century, it was largely rebuilt in the 16th century, as certain construction details of the eastern part of the building suggest. , which were taken up when the nave was built. On a funeral liter an escutcheon bears a chevron and a leader charged with three stars of Favre de Dardagny, a former infantry captain in the Querci regiment. The church is rectangular in plan, its bell tower porch is square, it is pierced on its four sides with triple bays, its roof as well as that of the church are covered with small flat terracotta tiles from the region. Its tympanum is remarkable, it represents Saint Luke, who is lying down looking at a tablet on which it is inscribed: “Visim est et mihi..” a quote taken from the gospel of Saint Luke. Georges Théodore Renaud was born in 1875 in Nièvre. Student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1897 to 1903. He worked in Paris, where he married in 1904, then he settled in Nevers. He built churches, presbyteries, castles, buildings, villas and war memorials. Luke the Evangelist or Saint Luke is a character about whom little is known, but who wrote part of the New Testament. Christian tradition considers him to be the author of the gospel that bears his name, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. In Nièvre, his best-known work is the Notre-Dame-de-Bethléem church in Clamecy, consecrated in 1927. He also carried out work in the churches of Brinon-sur-Beuvron, Moraches, Neuvy-sur-Loire, Saint Germain Chassenay, Saint-Honoré-les-Bains and Saint-Ouen-sur-Loire

Dated from the first half of the 12th century and placed under the name of Saint Julien, the church of Dornes was partly rebuilt at the beginning of the 16th century and finished with a canted apse. Its portal projects, three arched archivolts, two of which fall onto columns and capitals carved with leaves and animals. Its bell tower is square, it has a spire covered with slates, it occupies a central position, and has two bells, the bell tower is pierced with double arched bays, on each of its four faces, the bays are separated by two columns. On a slab in the church, the Epitaphs of François Manquat, first dean of the chapter of Dornes (founded around 1530), died in 1552, with a design of a very elegant chalice, and of Jean Vezier, one of the first canons from the church. Under the choir is a sepulchral vault of the lords of Dornes. The town bought the Dornes church on March 27, 1810. In the 20th century the church was renovated thanks to a subscription from the Dornese.

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.

Fleury-sur-Loire has a very interesting Romanesque church. Endowed with a barrel-vaulted nave, a barrel-vaulted transept and choir and an apse in a cul-de-four, this church also has a very beautiful bell tower, some of whose arches surmounting the twin bays present a decoration of sawtooth. The apparatus of the apse, on the outside, presents various lapidary marks (it's up to you to spot them), in particular crosses.

It is the oldest private botanical park in France! The architecture of the English gardens blends with collections of exotic species. Listed as a historical monument since 1993. Open daily from 9 am to 6 pm.