Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve walking route

Start from the car park, Place de l’Église, in Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve.

Signposted route no. 34 on the yellow directional signs.

(S/E) Head towards Saint-Jean-sur-Erve. On leaving the village, turn left to complete the circular loop around the Chapelle Saint-Sylvain. Enjoy the view towards Sainte-Suzanne. Then, head back towards Saint-Jean-sur-Erve on the left.

(1) After about 200m, take the first dirt track on the right towards the river. Cross the river and turn right to join the road coming from the hamlet of La Bancelière. Follow this road to a crossroads.

(2) Go straight on, leaving the footbridge on your right. Then turn left onto the D583: Caution: busy road. Drive carefully! . Continue for about 300m until you reach a turn-off on the right.

(3) Take the stone path on the right. Follow the river towards the cave site. Cross the river before Hardray Mill.

(4) Follow the river to the cave site.

(5) Once you reach the cave site, turn right onto the road leading up towards Les Hallais.
On your left, after the wooden footbridge, you can visit the site and the caves.

(6) At La Grande Roche, take the dirt track on the left to join the road and turn right until you reach the D583.

(7) At La Chesnardière, turn right for 100m and then left towards La Lèverie. Then, take the first dirt track on the right. Keep left until you reach the D235.

(8) On the D235, turn right towards Moulin de Gô.Caution: busy road. Please take care!
Continue straight on until you reach the church (S/E).

You can combine this walk with route No. 33, the “Circuit de l’Oratoire” (8.2 km).

There is an alternative route available to shorten your walk.
(4) Here, a possible alternative route branches off to the right, 200m after crossing the bridge at the old Moulin de Hardray, leading to the village of Saint-Pierre. If you take the alternative route: refer to point (6) .''

- Saulges Caves site: picnic tables, toilets.

At the end of your walk, and to “recharge your batteries”, we invite you to head to “Le Fournil du Cèdre”! (centre of Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve). Can you smell that lovely aroma of bread? Don’t leave without your wood-fired bread!!!

- Church of Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve: 7th-century Romanesque church

- Tombstones dating from 1330 and 1343, opposite the community bistro and Le Fournil du Cèdre, in Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve.

- The arcades and the communal oven near the former presbytery, now a lodge, to the left of the church of Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve.

- Saint-Sylvain Chapel: In 1431, Jean de Thévalles, Lord of Saint-Pierre, had this chapel built. Since the Middle Ages, many pilgrims have come here to worship and have a custom of carving graffiti on the chapel walls to mark their visits.
Among the oldest inscriptions, those from 1739 and 1745 are still visible.

- 13th-century footbridge: This bridge connects the hamlets of Erve and Les Croix.