The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Maixme-Hauterive

The Moulin de Mormoulins is a watermill located on the Eure River in the hamlet of Mormoulins. This mill dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries and is a listed historical monument. You can admire the old stone building, the wooden wheel, and the canal that diverts water from the river as you pass in front of the mill. The mill is surrounded by green fields and trees, creating a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere.

Very beautiful pond

Located on the banks of the Blaise River, southwest of Dreux in the prestigious Crécy-Couvé district, the Marquise de Pompadour's residence from 1746 to 1757, the seigneury of Saulnières came under the Marquise's ownership in 1754. Some remarkable elements of the church's furnishings are undoubtedly due to the generosity of this patron of the arts. The Saint-Pierre church, built on the heights of the commune of Saulnières, is believed to have originally been the church of a Benedictine convent, which ceded it to its inhabitants in 1571 after the sack of their place of worship in 1562, during the First Battle of Dreux. While the cartularies of Saint-Père, Beaulieu, and Belhomer mention the town from the first half of the 12th century, we have no documents on the church before its transfer to the commune. The building (34 m by 11.5 m), oriented, with a single nave of four bays extended by a choir bay, ends with a three-sided chevet extended along the axis by a sacristy. The walls are made of cobblestone and grison rubble, while the twelve buttresses are sandstone. The steeply pitched roof is covered with tiles, and, practically in its center, stands a bell tower with a hexagonal base crowned by a spire of the same shape. The western door is framed by two buttresses: it is surmounted by a rose window that probably dates from the 19th-century construction campaign. In the south wall, at the level of the first bay, a blocked, semicircular-arched entrance door suggests a Romanesque construction. From the second bay, light streams in generously through eight openings: semicircular arches for those in the nave and Gothic-style for the four choir bays; a fifth, axial, was blocked when the altarpiece was installed. The 16th-century stained-glass windows were destroyed during a bombing raid during the Second World War; only a few elements, listed as Historic Monuments, remain in the sacristy. The vault, covered with shingles, must have been painted, as evidenced by the hallmark decorated with black and white diamonds and chevrons, likely from the 16th century. The great simplicity of the architecture is offset by the relative richness of the furnishings. The late 15th-century stone statues representing Saint Barbara, a religious figure without attributes, and two angels from the same period constitute a fine example of Gothic sculpture, albeit lacking the two angels purchased in the early 20th century for the Louvre, where they are now on display. The choir's layout could date back to the time of Madame de Pompadour: the doors, open on either side of the central section, are surmounted by two painted and gilded wooden statues, Saint Peter and Saint Sebastian. The central section is crowned by God the Father, and the canvas depicts Saint Peter freed from his chains by an angel. A fragmentary funerary liter is still visible inside and outside. In 2003, the Sauvegarde de l'Art Français (French National Art Foundation) granted €10,000 in aid to help repair the structure and roof of the building, whose condition had been aggravated by the 1999 storm.

Built in the 15th century on the foundations of a chapel whose origins can be traced back to a papal bull from Pope Alexander in 1142, Saint Apollonia was worshipped there.

large bird reserve and nautical activities

The Saint-Rémy church in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre is dedicated to Saint Remi of Reims, Bishop of Reims who baptized Clovis in 496 in the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Reims. In the 12th century, it marked the border between the Duchy of Normandy and the French royal domain on which Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre depends. It is a flamboyant Gothic church from the 15th century, probably rebuilt since we have mention of its existence since the end of the 11th century.

Parish united in 1803 in Saint-Sauveur, in 1807 in Marville-les-Bois and in 1840 in Saint-Sauveur.

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.