The best traffic-free bike rides around Bellou-Le-Trichard

The church of Saint-Germain, located in the middle of the village, has a massive character accentuated by the embankment of the departmental road on the north side. The building shows three construction periods: to the north, the imposing square stone bell tower with a pyramid roof dates back to the 12th century; the nave, extended by a choir with a flat chevet, is covered with shingles with a tie-beam and collar-beam roof structure, perhaps dating from the 14th century; to the north and south, two side aisles, each of two bays, were added at the beginning of the 16th century, forming a transept opening onto the nave through pointed arches. These aisles are vaulted with quadripartite vaults with prismatic mouldings; to the south, the former seigneurial chapel has been joined to the aisle. The heavy silhouette of the monument is due to the fact that the side aisles were covered in line with the tiled roof of the main nave, contrary to the custom of the Perche region which favours the covering of each bay of the side aisles with separate roofs resting on transverse gables. The bell tower has two storeys topped by a cornice with modillions; it is buttressed by flat white stone buttresses. The upper storey is pierced by small bays, opening onto the belfry. This bell tower has a square lower hall vaulted with transverse arches, resting on capitals with simple foliage supported by engaged colonnettes at each corner. To the east, a pointed arch opening, now fitted with a stained-glass window, led to a small apse whose arrises were still visible before the work in 1974. This bell tower may have been built around 1190, at a time when Hugues de Thagaric and his wife Anne de Doncourt gave half of the church of Préaux to the Hôtel-Dieu of Nogent-le-Rotrou. This lord of Préaux had gone to England, qualified as seneschal, managing the property of the Count of Perche, Geoffroy V, and his wife Mathilde of Saxony, niece of Richard the Lionheart. The nave and choir form a rectangular space. The west facade has a beautiful pink rendering. It is finished with surmonts and opens with a large door and a window remodelled in the 19th century. The main decorative elements of the church are the high altar, with a pretty gilded wooden tabernacle from the late 17th century, reassembled in 1846 after the raising of the choir; the altars of the side chapels are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Mary Magdalene. The seven 16th-century stone and terracotta statues, which had been buried in the bell tower embankment, have been replaced there. Also noteworthy is the keystone with the arms of France in the south chapel and, on the wall, a pencil drawing certainly representing Pierre de Fontenay, sieur de la Reinière, a local man who actively led the reconquest of the Perche in the name of King Henry IV. It shows the silhouette of a town with a high keep which could be that of Bellême, of which Fontenay was governor. A commemorative stained-glass window of the 1914-1918 war is also to be noted. For the repair of the church roof, the Sauvegarde de l'Art français granted a donation of €34,000 in 2009.

Church of Plan Massé with a flat chevet. Nave composed of three aisles. Originality of the composition, with four different parts built at distinct times: the bell tower topped with a pavilion roof, two sections of the nave (two bays then five bays), and the choir. The entrance porch of the church is built against the north wall; it is adorned with a balustrade with an openwork network and its slopes are decorated with fleur-de-lis. The tympanum of the portal is polychrome. The eastern gable of the building is pierced by an oculus with four quatrefoils. The slopes are adorned with fleur-de-lis and crowned with a stone cross. Construction stages: Although the construction of the primitive church dates back to the 11th century, it underwent numerous modifications: - the choir dates from the 13th century (it is the priory chapel, opened onto the nave in 1808). - in the 15th century the nave was enlarged (which corresponds to the second section). - in the 16th century, the first section of the nave was partially rebuilt. Addition of side chapels at an unknown date. History: The church was ceded around 1090 by Gauthier Chesnel, lord of Ceton, to the Cluniac monks of Saint-Denis de Nogent-le-Rotrou. They established a priory there which was suppressed during the Revolution. This church replaced the village parish church which was destroyed during the Revolution.

Mentioned as early as the 13th century as a dependency of the abbey of Saint-Père, near Chartres, the Notre-Dame des Étilleux church comprises three disparate parts, the most surprising of which is the four-level bell tower, topped by a belfry covered in slate and a lanternon. Protestants are said to have held a sermon there in 1577. Since its foundation, the church has undergone many transformations, notably the rather recent decoration of the choir, an intertwining of fair-weather cumulus clouds in stucco that allows one to guess the original stone wall and a pointed arch opening. A beautiful flamboyant door opens to the west onto a parvis renovated in 1995, and the eastern part, on the sacristy side, has retained its row of gargoyles adorning the choir's slopes. This church is renowned for the very beautiful statue it houses: a Virgin and Child whose pronounced hip sway, facial expression, and the drapery of the mantle are characteristic of a 14th-century representation.

The priory was founded at the beginning of the 11th century and is dedicated to Saint Gauburge (or Walburge), abbess of a large Bavarian monastery in the 8th century. Originally owned by the lords of Bellême, it passed, from the 12th century, to the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis-en-France. From the end of the 15th century, it was directly dependent on royal power until the Revolution. An important rural estate, its buildings bear witness to its special status and the magnitude of its revenues. Since 1972, it has housed the headquarters of the Perche Ecomuseum, which bears witness to the peasant life of the Perche and develops a diverse cultural program.

The nave is covered with a wooden vault with exposed beams. The archivolts of the Romanesque door are decorated with saw teeth. The west gable wall is topped with a slender bell tower. The interior contains three classical altars whose designs were apparently made by Mansard at the request of Louvois, owner of the Prairie de Marcilly.

A male yew* was planted near the entrance to the church, once surrounded by the cemetery. Its double trunk supports a crown that hides part of the building. This funerary tree is the only significant plant in the crossing of the town, whose name evokes another species that has become rare: the field elm. The church is accessed through a porch (heavily restored) recalling the Romanesque origins of the building, confirmed by the narrow and high semicircular bay above it. During the Renaissance, the nave was enlarged by two chapels lit by windows with flamboyant tracery. The flat chevet was pierced by three bays in a pointed arch forming a "triplet", from the 13th century, probably walled up at the beginning of the 18th century when the high altar was installed. In the choir: high altar (early 18th century - Cl. MH) with armorial medium-relief** in terracotta, "The Transfiguration", after Raphael; gilded wooden statues of Saint Godegrand and Saint Opportune On the gable wall of the south chapel, between a corner buttress and a Gothic window, a sundial was painted in 1991, on the site of an old one. * The yew is a dioecious species: the male and female plants grow separately. Only the female flowers will give rise to the arils, a kind of fleshy bright red berry containing a single, toxic seed. ** Offered by the abbess of Saint-Julien du Pré, in Le Mans, Catherine d'Aumont, who died in 1708, whose coat of arms was: "argent with a chevron gules accompanied by seven martlets of the same, four in chief 2 and 2, three in base 1 and 2".

The church of St Pierre des Ormes holds an important place in the heart of the village, surrounded by its pretty flowerbeds. Dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, it has retained its Romanesque portal. After crossing it, you cross the narthex to reach a second door which opens onto the main nave of the building. The wooden vault is barrel-vaulted. An extension was made in the 16th century by adding a side aisle, with two windows which would become dormers. The small door with Renaissance decoration opened onto the cemetery, then adjoining. The current choir was built in the 19th century. The altar is made with two hemp braies supporting a beautiful wooden board. Note, on each side of the choir, wooden niches, one of which houses a statue of St John (with an eagle). A pilgrimage was organized every September 8th to Saint Gourgon, because the fountain was reputed to cure eye diseases. Very popular until the beginning of the 20th century, it was gradually abandoned. The fountain, now filled in, was located in the cellar of a house near the current town hall.

Saint-Rémy Church from the 11th and 16th centuries. Stained glass windows from the 20th century. Altarpiece of the Saint-Julien chapel from the 17th century.