The best traffic-free bike rides around La Chapelle-Vicomtesse

The Saint-Barthélémy church dates from the 12th century but was restored and enlarged in the 17th and then in the 19th century. The elegant bell tower, formed of a square tower, becomes octagonal at 20 m high. Small loophole-type windows light the belfry. It is topped by a dome, itself topped by a campanile and a lantern. It is considered a case study by schools of architecture. This church also contains several movable objects classified as Historic Monuments including Christ on the Cross, a polychrome wooden statue from the 17th century, two oils on canvas from the 17th century, a funerary plaque from 1674 by Michel de Verthamon, Knight of Malta, in stone and marble (epitaph in Latin and coat of arms) and a bronze bell, tuned in F, from 1580.

In 1133, Geoffroi, Viscount of Châteaudun, founded a priory dependent on the abbey of Tiron, in the diocese of Chartres, in this place. When he died, his wife, Helvise de Mondoubleau, built the church around 1140. The church is formed of a long nave ending in a semicircular apse. It has retained several narrow bays, with a semicircular arch, very flared towards the inside. In the 16th century, a chapel was added to the south of the church, a paneling with exposed tie beams above the nave and the choir, and a mass of carpentry to the west which supports the spire of the bell tower on pointed arches. The choir has a trefoiled piscina from the 14th century. In 1660, Jean Gry, a carpenter from Vendôme, executed the altarpiece and the following year, Pierre Janvier, a painter from Mondoubleau, painted the Resurrection which decorates it. The church houses two funerary slabs, one of a priest who died in 1658, the other of François Leboulx, Lord of Chauvellières, who died in 1691.

This church contains 14th century wall paintings. These paintings were discovered in 1895. They formerly occupied the entire width of the western wall of the nave. The central part was destroyed following the renovation of the door. The left side represented paradise. Of the bust of Christ, in a trilobed medallion, which occupied the center, there remains only a fragment of the cruciform halo. The rest of the composition is divided into rectangular compartments, each enclosing, in the surviving part, a figure of a crowned chosen one. On the right, hell is represented by a cauldron in which several characters are immersed, including a pope, a bishop, a monk, a king, a queen. Above, a woman with her legs apart. On the right, an enormous horned demon sticks out its tongue. On the left, another carries a basket filled with the damned and is about to plunge a woman into the cauldron. Construction periods: 14th century

This church was originally supposed to be a simple chapel of the commandery, founded in the 12th century by the Templars, forming one side of the courtyard that groups the buildings. The monumental 15th century porch is flanked by two brick towers. The nave ends with a semi-circular apse covered in a cul-de-four. Construction periods: 12th century, 13th century, 15th century

The church, which remained in the diocese of Chartres in the 18th century, belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Calais. Built in the 12th century, it consists of a single nave continued by a semicircular apse. The semicircular portal is surmounted by a consecration cross. Several pointed bays were pierced in the 15th century. In the 16th century, the church was enriched with paneling with exposed beams. In the sacristy behind the high altar, a beam sculpted with nails, crowns of thorns, fighters, monsters and coats of arms supports the altarpiece. It dates from the 16th century and most likely comes from a half-timbered house.

The parish church of Saint-Pellerin, whose oriented plan is reduced to a simple rectangle, only retains a few vestiges of the Romanesque period: part of the southern wall, itself repaired several times. The building, which was struck by lightning, was restored in 1821 with the reconstruction of a beautiful molded frame with tie beams. On the north side a chapel opens onto the nave through two arcades which rest on cylindrical columns. The flat bedside is pierced by a large window with three lancets topped with flamboyant tracery. The western facade is dominated by a triangular gable whose slopes are decorated with kale and dogs sitting on piles of loads, the Renaissance style portal is decorated with a large shell surmounted by a sculpted base of a angel holding a shield. On the north and south sides, thick glaciated buttresses support the gutter walls. The Safeguarding of French Art granted aid of 25,000 F in 1993 to restore the flat tile roof and the slate bell tower.

The village is located five kilometers south of Courtalain, in Perche-Gouët, southern part of the department close to Loir-et-Cher and Sarthe. An ancient Roman road, called “Caesar’s path”, crosses the country. The old, picturesque cemetery extended to the south of the church, the new cemetery developing to the east. The history of the building has been marked by two fires which ravaged the bell tower, the first in 1739, the second in the 19th century: after this last disaster, the bell tower was rebuilt on the first bay of the nave (and not on the middle), which led to significant modifications to the framework in place in the western part. The current bell tower, of hexagonal section, which leaned towards the southwest, was straightened during the latest work. The nave, elongated in shape, is extended to the east by a semi-circular apse. Two sacristies were built, one in the 18th century. to the north, the second to the east, later, was recently removed to free up the apse of the church. The church is built of coated flint rubble, grison was used for certain bay frames, as well as for buttresses. The presence of semi-circular openings in the upper part of the walls explains the very old dating (11th century) sometimes attributed to the building. The middle bay of the rounded apse was removed to allow the installation of an altarpiece. The door which, to the south, opened towards the cemetery is today condemned, the entrance is made either through another door also located in the south gutter wall, or through the western facade preceded by a caquetoire. The interior of the building is covered with a paneled framework with joint covers whose punches and molded tie beams are visible. Unfortunately, in the 1930s the north and south walls were lined in the western part with a cement block wall.  the entrance to the church remains a baptismal font; the church also has a statue of a saint holding a column. For the urgent work consisting of straightening the bell tower and removing the cement coatings in the lower part of the exterior walls, the Safeguarding of French Art granted aid of €7,000 in 2004.

Located in Droué in Loir-et-Cher, the Saint Nicolas church dates from the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. Droué was in the Middle Ages the name of a castle located between two parishes, Bourguérin and Boisseleau, which each had their own church and their own lord. The Saint Nicolas church, which was built on the site of the old chapel of the Château de Bourguérin, would then have replaced an old parish church. Today, the building is characteristic of Perche Vendômois. The nave, covered with paneling, was enlarged by a bay on the west side in 1631 by Isaac de Raynier and provided with a semi-circular portal with, on either side, two Doric columns. The choir, which underwent significant alterations in the 19th century, ends with a three-sided apse. Since the 19th century, the church has also had a sacristy and two chapels. In the chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas there is a door dating from the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. We can also observe stained glass windows representing the coats of arms of the imperial families, as well as a painting by Jouvenet: a man in armor is kneeling before a bishop to whom he gives keys. Several wooden statues, including a Virgin which dates from the 17th century, also decorate the church.