Eglise Saint Pierre – Saint George's Church loop from Authon-du-Perche

Eglise Saint Pierre – Saint George's Church loop from Authon-du-Perche

Easy

riders

Eglise Saint Pierre – Saint George's Church loop from Authon-du-Perche

01:33

34.9km

300m

Road cycling

Easy road ride. Mostly well-paved surfaces and easy to ride. The starting point of the route is right next to a parking lot.

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Tips

Your route passes through a protected area

Please check local regulations for:

Parc naturel régional du Perche

Waypoints

Start point

Parking

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250 m

Saint-André Church of Saintigny

Highlight • Religious Site

the Saint-André church dates from the 11th century; it was a priory then dependent on the abbey of St.-Calais, but the current building was completely rebuilt around the walls and framework of the old building. The project was carried out in 1877. The construction of a transept, enlarged windows and a stone bell tower completely modified the old monument. The environment has also changed a lot. All traces of the old cemetery, transferred outside the village at the beginning of the 18th century, have disappeared. The furniture includes a stone baptistery, a statue of the Virgin and Child, a confessional and a Louis XV period bench. The beautiful wooden tabernacle decorated with a statue of Saint Lubin comes from the church which was located a few kilometers away, in Saint-Lubin-des-Cinq-Fonts, and of which only the choir, which has become a chapel, remains today. .

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6.10 km

Eglise Saint Pierre

Highlight • Other

The construction of the church of Coudray en Perche dates back to the 12th century, but the 16th century saw its enlargement by the addition of a higher choir with a stone vault. The interior is distinguished by the nave's inverted ship-hull structure with its painted ceiling and four equally painted beautiful beams. Also noteworthy are the stone baptismal fonts with their scaly wooden lid, which bears a sculpted angel's head. All the windows were remodeled as was often the custom in the Renaissance. In the 19th century, a gallery was built for the children of the sisters' school. Above, admire the stained glass window "Let the little children come to me." The opening of the chancel window led to the modification of the main altarpiece, due to the generosity of the Prince of Henin, owner of the Château de Montgraham. The pretty stained glass window, which thus descends into the middle of the altarpiece, relates to the story of the church's patron saint: it is a depiction of Jesus handing the keys to Saint Peter.

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25.3 km

Saint George's Church

Highlight • Other

The church of Saint-Georges de Souancé is a vast edifice 34 m long. Built in the 16th century, perhaps on an older edifice, it was remodelled several times in the 19th century: notably in 1862 with the addition of a sacristy and a small chapel, while in 1894 the openings in the nave were enlarged and the choir vault was redone. The plan of the church consists of a nave of four bays, a choir bay of the same width, and a pentagonal apse. The bell tower, of square plan, is connected by a narrow passage to the nave. The sacristy, built in the 19th century, communicates with the choir bay; finally, the adjoining chapel opens onto the right part of the apse.

The exterior silhouette of the edifice, situated on a steep slope, is dominated by the pointed gable of the apse.

The bell tower, 21 m high, is topped by a four-sided roof. The first two levels could date from the 13th century, as suggested by the thickness of its walls, the arrangement of the slightly projecting buttresses, the narrow arched windows, long since blocked up. A strongly projecting band externally marks the separation of these two levels. Only the last storey, which houses the bells, is pierced by high windows; it is built slightly set back from the base of the tower, the setback being highlighted by a stone chamfer.

The gable of the west facade, slightly less high than that of the choir, has, like it, a very pointed profile. It is finished with a rondel and crochets.

The flamboyant-style portal is of a fairly common design: the depressed arch, flanked by two pilasters, is surmounted by a volute with acanthus leaves. A pointed arch window with two lancets opens in the gable wall, in the same axis as the portal. Two thick corner buttresses were probably built in the 16th century.

The Count of Souancé states that the windows opened in the side walls last century replaced older semi-circular windows.

Inside the edifice, the nave is covered with a wooden ceiling, referred to as "bardeaux" at the beginning of the century, while the 16th-century choir is vaulted with ogival cross vaults. The study of the stained glass windows and the coats of arms of the Le Breton, lords of Vilandry, the Souancé and Montdoucet, which appear on the keystones of the first two bays of the choir, seem to establish that the construction, begun around 1520, was completed before 1542. The stained glass windows of the choir tell the life of Saint George, patron saint of the church. After being subjected to poorly documented dismantling, they were reassembled in disorder during the 19th century. However, classified in 1907, they were re-leaded in 1923, a restoration that justified the award in 1926 of a prize of 5,000 F granted by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres from the Pellechot legacy.

The Count of Souancé, a correspondent of this Academy, requested and obtained, in 1930, the inscription of the choir and bell tower of the church in the supplementary inventory, then, in 1935, the protection of the facade and of the wooden ceiling covering the nave.

This protection was justified by the desire to prevent ill-conceived restorations from compromising the work that had just been completed by the architect of the Historical Monuments, Maunoury. The Count of Souancé recalled the unfortunate interventions that had previously been carried out in the edifice: widening of the nave windows, opening of reinforced concrete dormer windows in the tower roof, and, even more serious, the removal of the wall paintings uncovered in 1874, during the change of the altar.

La Sauvegarde de l'Art français granted in 2002 a contribution of €7,000 for the sanitation works of the edifice and for the restoration of the bell tower. These works had been deferred for six years.

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34.9 km

End point

Parking

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

33.2 km

930 m

736 m

< 100 m

Surfaces