Discovering the wash houses from Saint-Pierre-de-Bailleul

Starting point: Place de la Grâce, 27920 Saint-Pierre-de-Bailleul
Parking: Place de la Grâce car park
Start at the church of Saint-Pierre-de-Bailleul.

Markings: Yellow

(S/E) With your back to the car park, take Rue du Moucel opposite (wash house and Chapelle de la Grâce). Walk up to a house with round-arched windows and the “des Moeurs” path on the right.

(1) Follow this path until you reach a road.

(2) Turn left, then right and take the path. At the end of the wall (straight ahead after 10 m, wash house), turn right and join the D644 road.

(3) Turn left and continue straight on until you reach a junction with footpaths, tracks and trails.

(4) Leave the road and take the path on the left, climbing between the meadows, until you reach the next road.

(5) Turn left, then right at the Fork in the road. Then turn right to follow the Mont du Cage path. At the end, cross the road and continue straight on until you reach the Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne sign and a junction.

(6) Turn immediately right and continue to the next road. Cross the three-way junction, go down the road and, further on, turn right and follow the Chemin du Busquet to the houses.

(7) Turn right, then take Rue de la Boutinage opposite before turning left onto Chemin du Hazay (wash house). Arrive at Impasse des Hulins

(8) Turn left and continue straight on. Turn left into Rue aux Juifs (at the junction with Rue des Magnants) to reach its end.

(9) At the end, turn right and take the path on the right leading down to the Val des Vosseaux. When you reach the road, continue straight on until you reach the stop sign.

(10) Turn right, then right again to take the Chemin de la Vallée. Pass the riding school. Continue along the valley to the road (view of the waterwheel of a mill built in 1912).

(11) Turn left, then right at the junction. Take the D63 to a crossroads with a wash house.

(12) Turn left and head up Rue des Sources. At the junction, carry straight on along Rue Claude Monet, passing the cherry orchard and the town hall. Continue to the school.

(13) Turn right onto Rue des Grouettes, until you reach a wood.

(14) Enter the woods via the small path on the right. Cross the road with care, and take the Chemin Bunet uphill opposite. Follow it to the end. Turn left and head towards the church, then the car park on the right (S/E).

Wet sections around the wash houses. At the end of the route, the Bunet path is very steep and slippery, running alongside a small stream.

Did you know?
The Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, formerly part of the priory grounds, is situated above a spring that flows beneath the altar. From the 13th century onwards, after Mont-Saint-Michel, it was one of Normandy’s major pilgrimage sites. In the days of pilgrimages, people would climb on their knees from the valley up to the chapel. Its spring, still considered miraculous, is particularly renowned for treating skin conditions such as eczema.

The Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a place of pilgrimage built in the 12th century, renovated in 1680 and again in 1874.

The Wash Houses: The village women used to come here to rinse their laundry, a task requiring a great deal of water. At the top of the steps, the wheelbarrows were lined up as if in a car park. They were used to carry the tubs, the washing machines and the ‘washing box’ (a sort of wooden box lined with straw where one would kneel to wash the laundry).

Saint-Pierre Church or Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments since 1961. It was built in the 11th century and then extended between the 15th and 17th centuries. In the 16th century, a bell tower was built on top of the square tower, crowned by a cockerel, reaching a height of 40.5 metres. A bell was subsequently installed and christened in 1610. It measures 1.265 metres in diameter, weighs 1,162 kg and is named Marie de Bourbon.