The best traffic-free bike rides around Pré-Saint-Martin

The oldest document mentioning the Church of Saint-Martin in Fresnay-le-Comte is the charter of Renaud de Mouçon, Bishop of Chartres, confirming the possessions of the Abbey of Marmoutier, near Tours. This charter dates only from the last years of the 12th century, but the church's foundation may have already existed at that time. The building comprises two parts of roughly equal size and from different periods. The older part, roughly corresponding to the nave, is of a rather undefined style. The west portal, with its pointed arch devoid of any decoration, may date back to the 12th or 13th century, as may the first window of the nave, on the right. In the north wall, there is a small, walled-up doorway, whose lintel, adorned with an accolade, is no earlier than the 15th century, but the relieving arch above it appears older, perhaps from the 12th century. Half of the church, including almost the entire chancel, is from a more recent period and easily recognizable. The polygonal apse and the windows with their flamboyant tracery of late design indicate the very end of the 15th century. An inscription on one of the chancel's tie beams gives a precise date: In the year 1529, this chancel was completely rebuilt. The statue of the Virgin Mary was baptized during the Mass of October 30, 2021, by Father Pierre Paul. This statue, moved from the Chapel of the Three Marys in Mignières, was restored by Mr. Martial Moulin, a sculptor from Chartres.

The church, dedicated to Saint Denis, is located in the diocese of Chartres. It was under the jurisdiction of the Benedictine abbess of Saint-Avit in Châteaudun. It comprises two distinctly contrasting parts: a low Romanesque nave, 17 meters wide by 8.5 meters long, and a taller Gothic chancel, 14 meters wide by 10 meters long. The western doorway, with its semicircular arch, is framed by columns whose bases are molded with two tori and whose capitals are adorned with leaves ending in volutes. The tympanum is plain, surrounded by a molded archivolt, and externally highlighted by an archivolt decorated with a sawtooth pattern, similar to that of the nearby church of Saint-Maur-sur-le-Loir. The western gable, framed by flat buttresses, is pierced above this doorway only by a small semicircular window. The nave's side walls are reinforced with buttresses. The north buttress is blank, while the south one has three windows, two of which, long and narrow, may be original; the third was likely widened later. A side door was added on this side in the 14th century. The chancel, with its flat apse, is topped by a high gable whose sloping sides are decorated with crockets. The central window with flamboyant tracery was walled up to accommodate the large altarpiece. The north wall is blank; only two flamboyant windows with triple lancets illuminate this part of the building on the south side. The structure is punctuated by flat buttresses with offsets. A stone inscription indicates the date of its construction: 1550. Inside, the nave and chancel are not vaulted in stone, as the large number of buttresses might suggest from the outside. They are covered with panelled wooden vaults. In the center of the nave, four wooden pillars and a hexagonal framework support the slate spire that crowns the building. Among the interesting furnishings are a 17th- or 18th-century baptismal font, a painting depicting the Education of the Virgin, a pulpit, a churchwarden's pew, choir stalls, Restoration-era choir paneling, and, most notably, a magnificent and imposing altarpiece from the church of Saint-Germain-les-Alluyes, from where it was transferred in 1812. It is the work of Charles Roscoët, who also worked at the churches of Alluyes and Moriers. The Vitray altarpiece dates from 1669; its central panel is framed by double twisted columns adorned with vine leaves and surmounted by a Baroque pediment in the center of which is a statue of a bishop saint (Saint Germain) between reclining figures. The two wings of the altarpiece, right and left, are topped with twisted columns and adorned with shell-shaped niches intended to hold statues. In 2005, the French Heritage Society (Sauvegarde de l’Art français) awarded a grant of €6,500 for the restoration of the gable, the belfry, and the bell tower roof, as well as the installation of a lightning rod.

Saint Mames was martyred in Cappadocia around 1274: local legend has it that a saint offers a helping hand to cross the Loir. On April 17, 1707, thunder struck the bell tower.

The church consists of a single nave, extended by a single-bay choir, and a semicircular apse. Two canted chapels, forming a false transept, were added during this renovation. The church is dominated by a timber-framed bell tower that rises above the first bay of the nave. The gable of the western facade was rebuilt in the last century, an external wooden porch removed. The central axis of the current facade is punctuated by a semicircular door surmounted by an archivolt, a circular opening on the first level and a small window pierced in the upper part of the gable. On the north side, a highly raised stringcourse forming a cornice, resting on simple modillions, still survives in the upper part of the wall. Additional openings were added to the old, narrow, and uneven openings in the last century, in the nave, as well as in the choir and apse, to allow more daylight to enter the building. The interior of the church is covered with a paneled roof structure: the one covering the nave is believed to date from the 16th century. The entire structure has been given a coherent decoration, from the faux-stone plasterwork to the paneled vault, the furnishings, and the statuary. The church also boasts a 17th-century polychrome wooden statue of Saint Barbara. The Prunelé coat of arms appears at the bottom of the stained-glass window of Saint Louis and, outside, on a medallion on the apse wall. The Sauvegarde de l'Art Français (French National Art Protection Agency) granted €5,000 in grants in 2004 for masonry and roof repairs and the installation of drainage.

This church in Meslay-Le-Vidame, whose architecture reflects the formal language of antiquity, was dedicated to the patron saint of Saint Etienne. He was one of the first seven deacons of the original Jerusalem church and, according to the biblical accounts in the New Testament, the first martyr (martyr) of early Christianity. The church commemorates his death on Boxing Day, December 26th. As the Acts of the Apostles recounts: When Stephen recounted his vision of the open heavens, "And he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Chapter 7, Verse 55), the people were so outraged that they drove him out of the city and stoned him.

The Henri Ey Hospital Center is a departmental public health establishment, specialized in psychiatry, which provides a mission of prevention and reception, care, aftercare and reintegration in mental health in Eure-et-Loir. It provides care in adult, child and adolescent psychiatry, as well as a medico-social activity in the field of geriatrics and psychological and mental disabilities.

Unfortunately, the church was not accessible when I visited (mid-September 2024). You could only look in through a gate and the dance of death depictions on the left side were not really visible. In front of them were transparencies with skeleton drawings. Maybe those were the depictions...

Porte de Boisville Its ogival portal opens into a thick quadrangular massif where there was a room for operating the portcullis. We can still see the groove in the thickness of the walls. On the left and right two small funnel-shaped spaces allowed the defenders to observe and repel the enemies who appeared on the bridge. The gate was topped by a building serving as a guardhouse which was demolished in 1761. The guarding of these doors and their keys was in the troubled times of the Hundred Years' War the subject of concern for the inhabitants and also a source of quarrels and trials between the city and the abbey. This gate is preceded by a bridge of 5 stone arches, the one adjoining the gate was built in 1774 and replaced a drawbridge which defended the entrance.