The best traffic-free bike rides around Grandchamp

Great location in the heart of the woods. Easily accessible.

This old village with mud houses has an imposing church tower; In the church, the openings in the chancel have been closed after repeated raids. This is the last fortified church on the route.

Signy-l'abbeye is a pleasant town with two hotels and, for the region, quite a few amenities, an ATM and a small supermarket. There is a large (walking) forest to the west and you will also find a campsite there. The church was built in 1900 on the site of a 16th century shrine. There was a Cistercian abbey here between 1135 and 1793.

Two small sacred monuments can be found at this point: * First the figure of the Archangel Michael "SAINT-MICHEL", shown here not with the flaming sword, but with a lance. He directs this against a subject lying on the ground in front of him who embodies evil and is thus defeated by the archangel. * Behind and slightly elevated, a huge cross rises up on a two-tiered foundation, which inevitably dominates the entire scene: Above the foundation is a base with an inscription, and above it rises the actual cross with the body, i.e. the figure of Jesus Christ. Above the head of the crucified man there is the tablet with the four letters “INRI” as a (Latin) abbreviation for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”.

The Basilique Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours de Neuvizy is a Catholic basilica located in the village of Neuvizy. A pilgrimage is organized in the church and on the Marial road on the outskirts of the village in May and on August 15, which has earned Neuvizy the nickname “Le Lourdes Ardennais”. Pope John Paul II decided to elevate it to a basilica in 2002. The history of this basilica began on April 30, 1752, when eight children attending catechism in Villers-le-Tourneur discovered a statuette of the Blessed Virgin, surrounded by a halo of light, near a small fountain on an oak tree in the woods from Neuvizy. They knelt down and recited the Salve Regina, the Souvenez-vous and many prayers and other songs. In 1818, a cross was erected in the forest, in the presence of Charles Poit, the last survivor of the event. At that time, the church of the village was just a simple and small structure, but after the multiplication of phenomena, pilgrims came in more and more numbers to pray before the miraculous statue placed inside the modest chapel of the village. So a bigger church had to be built. Under the impetus of the parish priest at the time, Canon Nicolas Valentin, the foundation stone for a new church was laid on May 4, 1865, in the presence of 10,000 pilgrims. This priest supervised the construction of the new sanctuary and was also the assistant architect, carpenter, painter and main sculptor. On the outside, a marble indicates that this canon rests under the trumeau of the church. Most of this religious monument was completed in late 1876.

The church and the village were founded by the Saint-Remi abbey of Reims. The commune has 22 hamlets. Passage of the Reims-Cologne Roman road.

The plan of the church is almost rectangular, the transept and apse show a faint projection. A crest overlooks the first bay of the nave, which has three. To the northeast, two watchtowers rise above the buttresses of the apse. The transept, adjoining chapels and choir are in late Gothic style. The choir is shallow, with Renaissance medallions depicting the four evangelists2. The first two spans of the nave are capped, the third is vaulted. Also striking inside is the 16th century stone pieta, which steps on a dragon with the head of a man and the body of a serpent.

Signy-l'Abbeye is a pleasant town with two hotels, and for the region, quite a few amenities, an ATM and a small supermarket. To the west is a large (walking) forest and you will also find a campsite.