The best traffic-free bike rides around Breux-Sur-Avre

The first mention of the existence of the Church of Saint-Martin de Nonancourt is a 12th-century charter, but the original building probably dates back to the 7th or 8th century. The bell tower that now occupies the middle of the façade dates from the reconstructions of 1204. During the Hundred Years' War, the church was largely destroyed, like many buildings in the region. The side aisles, nave, and choir were rebuilt in the 16th century. The Chapel of the Virgin, also known as the Chapel of the Rosary, was also added. The Church of Saint-Martin contains numerous works of art, some of which are listed: neo-Gothic and Renaissance furnishings, including the centerpiece, the pulpit, a veritable wooden lacework; a variety of statuary, a 16th-century organ case and finally an enigmatic fresco discovered during recent works in 2001. The stained-glass windows of the church constitute a truly remarkable collection, both in terms of their number (26 in total) and their quality. The lower windows of the nave are the oldest pieces, dating from the 1500s, while the upper windows date from the 1520s and 1530s.

The current church was almost entirely rebuilt in 1542 on Gothic foundations. The Gothic church was reportedly destroyed in 1424 by the English. According to legend, Saint Lubin, Bishop of Chartres, came to rest in this place, which housed a recluse inhabited by a monk. A chapel was built there towards the end of the 6th century.

Construction of the church began in the 12th century, and the building was subsequently remodeled, particularly in the 16th century.

Saint-Pierre Church. The village is spread out over the Douze valley. The church, of large dimensions, is composed of two chronologically distinct parts: a Romanesque nave and, on the other hand, a false transept and a 16th century choir. Although the nave is not vaulted, it is supported by three almost flat buttresses which divide it into three "bays". The oldest parts of the construction seem to be the western part of the nave and a portion of the herringbone wall. The hypothesis of the Drouais and Thimerais Archaeology Society would be that the choir and the south chapel date from the 15th century and the north chapel from the 16th century. According to the Archaeological Society of Eure-et-Loir, all the transformations date from the 16th century: we would be inclined to agree with this latter opinion, given the size of the south chapel and the coherence of the whole of the eastern part of the church, particularly highlighted by the presence of a vigorous dripstone cordon that underlines the base of the building, structuring the elevation all around the chevet and the two chapels. The two chapels forming a transept are lit by two large windows: those of the south chapel are in a pointed arch, divided by a tracery into two lancets and a polylobed arch, perhaps traced during a later restoration. Three sculpted buttresses support this elevation, two were placed at the corners, the third between the two windows that light the chapel to the south. The applique of the west wall of the south chapel is very neat. The upper part of the south gable wall has been rebuilt, but the base in the lower part is also carefully dressed. The chevet built in fine stone is also supported by elegant buttresses. However, it is the chapel built symmetrically to the north that appears to be the most refined by the quality of its limestone with live joints, by the design of the buttresses and the tracery of the large windows. On the north side, the "door of the dead" communicating with the cemetery, was pierced on the west wall of the chapel. It is surmounted by a pediment, the jambs are decorated with pilasters, not protruding. It is certainly a seigneurial chapel. We enter the church by the west door under an 18th century porch covered with a beautiful frame. The door is also old. At the entrance to the church, we find ourselves under the stool of the frame spire. There may be remains of ancient decorations under the whitewash of the nave. A beam of glory separates the nave from the choir: it is a complete polychrome wooden ensemble, Christ on the cross surrounded by the Virgin Mary and Saint John and below, the Virgin of Pity. The work bench has been preserved. Inside the north chapel, we can see at the corners bundles of ribbed vaults which seem to be waiting for a vault which may have collapsed, or, more likely, which was never erected. In the south wall is embedded a pile whose capital, with an angel's head, bears the barely legible date of 1514. The high altar, from the 18th century, in carved wood, has been preserved in place; the painting of the altarpiece represents the denial of Saint Peter. The fragments of stained glass from the 16th century were removed during the work. The church preserves a wooden Education of the Virgin, split, a Saint Peter, a Saint George, a Saint Sebastian, a naïve Saint Eligius. The Sauvegarde de l’Art français granted aid of €5,000 in 2005 for drainage, masonry and framework repairs and tile roofing.

The parish church of Escorpain, dedicated to Saint Germain, is a very simple building, rectangular in plan and of modest dimensions. With a single nave, it ends with a flat chevet; a sacristy is attached to the north side of the choir; the gable wall of the façade is topped with a slate spire. The church is mentioned as early as the 12th century. The small rubble stonework, which also bears the traces of numerous alterations, and the small openings, three in number in the north wall and only one in the south wall, constitute the oldest remains of this building which was extensively restored in the 19th century. It was in fact from 1886, thanks to the generosity of the Firmin-Didot family that the building was raised, as evidenced by the gable wall of the façade. The nave was then covered with a panelled vault, replacing the previous framework: the 1886 inscription mentions previous work campaigns, in the 17th century in particular. The entire interior was redesigned, not without unity, in a neo-Gothic style. As for the two large bays in the south wall, probably pierced in the 16th century, they were greatly altered during this campaign. For the repair of the exterior masonry, the rendering of the façade, the roofs of the nave and a slope of the sacristy, the Sauvegarde de l’Art Français granted this unprotected church a subsidy of 80,000 F in 1994.

The church of Vitray is mentioned from the year 1116 “ecclesias de Vitriaco”.

Located on the edge of the plateau that dominates the Vigne valley to the north, the church of Rueil is of great interest both for its architecture and its furnishings. The construction of the nave dates back to the Romanesque period (11th-13th century) but this nave was modified in the 16th century by the opening of semi-circular windows and consolidated by powerful buttresses. The bell tower with a pyramidal spire on an octagonal base, pierced with louvers, is covered with slate like most of the bell towers of Thymerais and the Avre valley. Inside, one is struck by the size of the nave covered with a shingle vault resting on tie beams whose ends are sculpted into monsters' mouths.

On the water line, taken to Paris