Between Loire and Beauce — Loop from Orléans

03:26

85.5km

220m

Road cycling

Moderate road ride. Good fitness required. Some segments of this route may be unpaved and difficult to ride. The starting point of the route is right next to a parking lot.

Last updated: August 12, 2024

Tips

Cycling is not permitted along parts of this route

After 15 m for 117 m

After 85.6 km for 64 m

Waypoints

Start point

Parking

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49.9 km

View of the Lignerolles mill

Highlight • Other

The Moulin de Lignerolles is one of the last pivotal windmills in the Loiret department. Built in 1848, this wooden mill belonged to Louis-Joseph Soulas, famous painter and director of the Orléans School of Fine Arts. You can admire the restored mill and its ingenious mechanism, as well as the panoramic view of the plain. The mill is open to the public on Sundays from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and also hosts various events throughout the year, such as a flea market, concerts and exhibitions. Visiting the Moulin de Lignerolles is an excellent way to discover the heritage and charm of the Beauceron countryside.

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52.0 km

Saint-André Church of Patay

Highlight • Religious Site

The Saint André church (13th-15th-16th centuries)
In the 7th century, the Benedictine abbey of Bonneval created a priory-curate. Its existence is confirmed by a bull from Pope Gregory second half of the 16th century.

In 1793 the church was desecrated and transformed into wine and spirits warehouses.

In 1801, the church was returned to worship and changed diocese: from the diocese of Chartres, to which it belonged before the Revolution, it passed to the diocese of Orléans, notably for reasons of distance: Chartres is 48 km from Patay then that Orléans is only 27 km away.

The church is 30 m long and 17 m wide. The oldest parts are located near the large porch (13th century). One of the pillars of the nave is decorated with a vestige of Danse Macabre from the mid-15th century. A small masonry door on the right communicated with the old priory, of which ruins remain to the south of the church. The choir dates from the 14th century; the apse wall was decorated with paintings at the end of the 19th century, the chapels were then redeveloped and equipped with new stained glass windows. The keystones of the large nave were made from casts taken from the figurines which adorn the Thesis Room of the University of Orléans, built in 1411.

The bell tower, located to the north of the choir, would be an old watchtower. Its pinnacles and eight openings were made after the Wars of Religion. The four bells were melted in 1868. The largest was cracked by a Prussian shell in 1870 and was recast in 1871. Since that year, Ernestine (809 kg, 1 m 12 in diameter at the base, sounding the F), Gabrielle (550 kg, 0.981 m in diameter, sounding the ground), Anne (398 kg, 0.573 m in diameter) and Marie (222 kg, 0.724 m in diameter, sounding the C) give rhythm to the daily life of the small town of Patay, old Beauceron railway junction.

On August 15, 1944, an ammunition train was blown up at Patay station. The station was blown up, except for the carriage shed, and all the windows in the town were shattered. Luckily, a providential storm limited the damage. The only two stained glass windows that survived the explosion are those on the right side aisle which date from 1930 and relate the communion of Joan of Arc in the Patay church in 1429.

The church was listed as a Historic Monument in 1925 by decree of October 6, 1925.

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78.2 km

Parc de la Médecinerie

Highlight • Natural

The Medicine Park takes its name from the medicinal plants that were once picked and dried there. Very pleasant with its lake lined with gorse and willows, around which picnic tables have been installed.
However, this place is also steeped in history as it bears witness to a very rich pottery activity from the 7th to the 10th century. Archaeological excavations regularly uncover vestiges of terracotta production from the period, providing us with valuable information on construction methods and life at the time.

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