The Swallows’ Circular Path in Senonches

In Senonches, parking is available at Place de Champ de Foire, Rue du Tramway.

No signposting

(S/E) From the car park, head left along Rue du Tramway to the Carrefour des Vallées. Turn left and cross Rue des Marronniers to follow the footpath along Rue de la Ferté-Vidame. Cross at the mini-market car park and continue through the square. Exit to the right via the path leading to Rue des Moulins, which you should follow to the left.

(1) Veer off a few metres to the right to catch a glimpse of Lucien Descaves’ house at No. 2, then retrace your steps. Cross the road at the pedestrian crossing. Continue along Rue de la Ferté-Vidame, on the pavement, until you reach the corner of Allée Simone Veil. Turn right. At the end, turn left onto Allée Louis Goupil, then right onto Allée du Docteur Fournier, near the “Chêne Alliance” block of flats.

(2) Turn right onto Allée des Enfants de Soissons. You’ll reach Chemin de Paris; follow it to the right until you reach the Fossé Rouge junction.

Yellow and red markings for the GRP® Vallées de la Blaise et de l’Avre.

(3) Turn left towards La Framboisière. Follow the D25 until you reach the edge of the forest. Take the first path on the left, near the forest edge. Follow it until you are close to the D941. Turn right onto the track which leads to the Ligne des Trois Pierres, 100 m from the Rond de Diane, which you reach by turning left.

(4) At the Rond de Diane, cross the D941 with care and continue straight ahead. At the next junction, with the Ligne de Sauveloup, leave the GRP®.

No signposting

(5) Carry on straight ahead until you reach the bend to the right in the lane.

(6) Take the path on the left alongside the fenced-off plot. After the fence, carry on straight ahead until you reach the edge of the woodland. Turn right onto the small Tardais-Laudigerie road. Follow it to the left. Turn left onto the D20. Cross it carefully and head towards Rue de l’Évêché. At the end of the street, turn right into Rue de l’Ancienne École. Continue until you reach the start of a path on the left.

(7) Follow it to the left, then turn right to follow the track running behind the houses. At the corner of an orchard, take the track on the left through the fields which joins the D319. (Start of the shorter alternative route on the left.)

(8) Follow it to the right as far as the small copse and the junction with the gravel track to Haut Cornet. Turn left onto this track. Pass the radio mast and continue to the Rond de Condé.

(9) Cross the D140 with care, and follow the^first lane, slightly to the right, which climbs gently but goes straight on to the Rond des Ruelles.

(10) (Chêne Fauteuil 100 m to the left), follow the Route Forestière des Ruelles to the left until you reach the left-hand bend. To reach the site of the Camp des Canadiens (400 m there and back), take the path on the right at the bend in the road. You’ll come to large concrete blocks covered in moss, the remains of the sawmill machinery’s bases.

(11) Turn round and head back to the Route des Ruelles. Continue to the right until you reach the Rond de Monsieur picnic area.

Yellow markings

(12) Cross the Ligne du Haut Cornet and follow the path alongside the disused railway line to the D140.

No markings

(13) Follow the road to the left to the Rond de la Sablonnière. Continue straight ahead along the lane. On the descent, you’ll reach the start of a path on the right (the end of the alternative route), in the embankment, which leads to the Étang Loiseau.

(14) Follow this path until you reach the top of the Étang Loiseau embankment.

(15) Turn right onto the path that runs alongside a fence, crosses a lane and, after crossing the railway line (take care, steep section), comes out at the side of the D25, at the entrance to Senonches.

(16) Cross the D25 with care. Take the path opposite, behind the ‘Orée du Bois’ housing estate. Join the discovery route and continue straight ahead to the picnic tables. Cross the car park, then Avenue du Général de Gaulle. Take the path opposite leading to the secondary school. Cross Avenue Poucin (lovely view towards the church). Continue straight ahead for a few dozen metres along the path behind the secondary school until you reach the start of a path on the right.

(17) Turn right onto the winding path, which is sometimes damp. At the Fork in the road, take the path on the right, which stays close to the D941 and leads to an area of excavations for iron ore mining: “La Vente des Trous”. Walk carefully along the edge of the pits and join a path coming from the road.

(18) Turn left and head straight down this track until you reach the fence of the holiday village.

Yellow markings

Continue to the left to reach the entrance to the holiday village. (In season, you can visit the Étang de Badouleau, a bar-restaurant open to all).

(19) From the entrance to the holiday village, carry on straight ahead along the path leading down towards the Source de la Hutte. Walk past the farm – now a riding centre – to reach the Route de Pontgouin.

No signposting

(20) Turn left. Then take Rue des Sormes on the left. At the wash house, turn right, following the Ruisseau de Saint-Cyr. Head towards the shore of Lac Arthur Rémy. Continue straight ahead, staying close to the shore, cross the weir, then pass in front of the Evés wash house. Continue along the water’s edge until you reach the Rond de Battenberg.

(21) Follow Avenue Poucin to the right, towards the church. Turn right onto Rue du Château. Cross the square. Enter the castle courtyard (tourist office – museum).

(22) On leaving, walk under the market halls, then turn right. At the end of Place des Halles, turn left onto Rue du Four Banal. Walk past two beautiful monumental gateways. Walk alongside the village hall car park until you reach Rue Michel Cauty.

(23) Cross the street and, at the corner by the hotel-restaurant, follow Rue Foucault, which leads to the church. After visiting the church, you’ll reach the crossroads (public toilets on the right, on the corner).

(24) At the crossroads, turn right onto Rue Louis Peuret, heading towards the town hall. Continue along Rue de Verdun, then turn left at the pedestrian crossing next to the war memorial. Follow Rue Aristide Briand. Opposite the police station, cross at the pedestrian crossing and turn right onto Rue du Chemin de fer, which leads to the old railway station. Go down the stairs to reach the Champ de Foire car park (S/E).

Sturdy, waterproof footwear is recommended.

During the hunting season, check with the Perche Forests Tourist Office for the hunting calendar. No hunting is permitted in state-owned forests on Sundays and public holidays. https://www.perche-tourisme.fr/

Alternative route: a 5 km shortcut by following (8) the D319 to the left, then the path that descends to the right along the edge of the forest to rejoin the route at point (14).

We recommend reading the book *L’Hirondelle sous le toit* beforehand. It is available in its new edition, enriched with photographs, at the Maison de la Presse or at the château bookshop. It can be borrowed free of charge from the media library. You will also find several books on Senonches here, as well as the local history bulletins published by the Cultural Association, in particular issue no. 34, “Notre Goncourt Lucien Descaves”, and issue no. 21, which recounts the welcome given to the children from Soissons and the Canadian Camp.
Also worth noting is Philippe Lipchitz’s book *Senonches comme je l’ai rêvé* (published by Éditions du Colombier), in which one chapter humorously imagines the unlikely conversion of his home in Senonches into a “writer’s house”.

(1) Lucien Descaves’s house, “ La Préférée” , 2 Rue Lucien Descaves. The street was previously known simply as Rue de la Framboisière, named after the nearby village. The house was completely ransacked in June 1940. Following the writer’s death in 1949, it was sold and has since had several owners. It deserves to be better highlighted; the street name alone does not seem sufficient to save the former president of the Académie Goncourt from oblivion. This house and its garden were frequented by literary figures of the early 20th century: Joris-Karl Huysmans and Roland Dorgelès; not to mention the frequent visits from his friend, the painter Maurice de Vlaminck, who had been living near Rueil-la-Gadelière since 1925.

(2) Rue des Enfants de Soissons. A very short street which nevertheless keeps alive the memory of this fine act of humanity.

(11) Camp des Canadiens. There are now virtually no traces left of the excessive ‘clearing’ of the forest to provide the timber needed to shore up trenches and other bunkers on the front line. Nature has reclaimed its rights. Even the railway line, though abandoned more recently, is already disappearing beneath the vegetation.

(15) Étang Loiseau ( Des Sablonnières). This now very peaceful pond is described as an eerie place where the very sad episode of the suicide of the overly romantic schoolmistress Clémence Chantoiseau took place.

(18) La Vente des Trous. An area of former iron ore quarries where the children from the ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ youth club used to come and play at war, thinking the holes were shell craters.

Badouleau Pond – A holidayvillage set up around the pond in huts, cabins and other simple accommodation. Much loved by those who enjoy holidays in the great outdoors.

(20) La Ferme de la Hutte – Nothing to do with the huts at the holiday village; the hut in question is said to have belonged to a quasi-legendary hermit who is said to have settled nearby. Now a riding centre, this former farm is said to be the ‘Ferme Bourrue’ from the novel, and the spring next to it may well have been the place where the women living nearby used to gather. They would have come here to wash their clothes and bathe their children, all the whilst spreading the venom of their gossip.

Washing houses on Rue des Sormes and later on Avenue des Évets. Testaments to the hard labour of women in those days, these were also places where village gossip was exchanged.

Arthur Rémy Lake and Park. On the site of the former marshy area described by L. Descaves, a park was laid out in the 1960s by Albert Rémy, son of Arthur, an agricultural mechanic in La Ville-aux-Nonains and Mayor of Senonches. Albert had expanded his father’s small agricultural machinery workshop and turned it into a major factory in Senonches. Later taken over by John Deere, the factory had contributed significantly to the town’s economic growth before it closed in 1981. Albert Rémy chose to name the park after his father; he had commissioned its creation to enhance the Evés neighbourhood. This beautification continued with the development of the Square du Petit Bossard on the other side of Avenue Poucin.

(21) Avenue Poucin ( Avenue de la Gare). “With its gnarled lime trees and their menacing branches, and its view towards the church spire topped by its ‘exclamation mark’. The Chèvremont estate could well have been the one seen on the left along this beautiful avenue.

(21) Rond de Battenberg. A German town twinned with Senonches since 1979 in the spirit of Franco-German reconciliation.

(22) Château de Senonches – Headquarters of the Perche Forests Tourist Office. The Grison keep dates from the 12th century; it is the only remaining part of the fortress built by Hugues II de Châteauneuf to protect the region from Norman incursions.

Place des Halles. During the First World War (1914–18), the Town Hall and the Justice of the Peace’s court were located on the upper floor. Recently restored and reopened, the market halls had been closed in 1907 to create a village hall and were used in 1917 as an extension to the military hospital. The square was then known as Place du Marché. This market is still held on Friday mornings. The cafés ‘L’Univers’ and ‘Le Progrès’ – strongholds of the ‘Radis’ and the ‘Ratis’, the two rival political parties of the time – must have stood opposite one another on this square. In those days, there were numerous cafés in town where men rivalled their wives in peddling the most vile slander.

Monumental gateways on Rue du Four Banal. The first marks the entrance to a private property; the second leads into the main courtyard of the village hall. At the time of the story, it was also the entrance to the grounds of a fine bourgeois residence, ‘La Villa des Peupliers’.

(23) Rue Michel Cauty. An inn formerly known as ‘Des Trois Marchands’ (Le Plat d’étain in the story). Run by Tiennette Bretonnet, who was a formidable drinker! This was also the protagonists’ favourite meeting place and the starting point for devastating gossip. Lucien Descaves, too, would meet his friends there around a well-laid table.

Notre Dame Church. In the 12th century, its bell tower served as a watchtower, contemporary with the castle’s keep. Its spire, damaged by German bombardments in June 1940, was rebuilt after the Liberation. The rest of the building has changed little since the time of Lucien Descaves.

(24) Rue Louis Peuret, mayor of Senonches during the war. It is he who, in the novel, is called ‘The Good Doctor Chazey’. L. Descaves situates the post office and the chemist’s in this street, with the Boussuge property opposite – perhaps in the house on the left, which also has another monumental gateway. This residence was the home of Albert Rémy, the former industrialist and mayor.

Town Hall: anauxiliary military hospital had been set up in 1915 in this beautiful bourgeois residence, which later became a girls’ school. After a period of neglect, the building was restored to house the Town Hall, the media library, the music school and the offices of the Communauté des Communes des Forêts du Perche.

War Memorial erected in 1922, a simple obelisk made of local Grison stone, adorned with a bronze palm frond. The names of the 76 residents of Senonch who died ‘pro Patria’ are inscribed on the plaque affixed to the plinth

Louis Peuret’s house on Rue Aristide Briand. It was in an outbuilding of this residence that Dr Chazey – who was a chemist, not a doctor – is said to have accommodated Mrs Louvois and her three children. A chemist’s shop did indeed operate here until the 2000s, before being merged with the one on Place des Halles.

Former Senonches railway station ( where the children from Soissons are said to have been taken in) – in reality, they had travelled from Dreux by tram and had been placed with host families at the station, which no longer exists, having been replaced by the former Emergency Centre along Rue des Marronniers.

The station staircase. The two lanterns at the top were installed in 1914 to light the staircase following the cessation of acetylene gas street lighting due to a carbide shortage. The stationmaster had been put in charge of operating them.