Champignelles () is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is lo ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (; , sometimes abbreviated BFC; Arpitan: ''Borgogne-Franche-Comtât'') is a region in Eastern France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions, from a merger of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. The new region ...

in north-central

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The commune of Champignelle is situated near the

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.

department, at 50 km from

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

and

Montargis Montargis () is a communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, ...

and 150 km south of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Champignelles was merged with the neighbouring commune of Louesme on January 1, 1973.

History

The castle of the Parc Veil is an evidence of the past families thait reigned over the area until the 19th century.

Sightseeing

Le petit train de Champignelles

Built on a land of near the Agréau stream, the Little Train of Champignelles is a

ridable miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...

network reproduced on a 1/3 scale. The APTC (''Association du Petit Train de Champignelles'') was created in 1990 by a group of devoted modellers that worked on a project to rehabilitate an abandoned field in Champignelles, near a place known as Prés de l'Abîme. Some sixty volunteers participated in the construction, who built the rail network with railway stations, an automated signaling control, turntable, and planted trees to create a nice undergrowth for the train and its association. The track has a 40 cm gauge and has a 1 km network. The BB-001 locomotive runs on a Chrysler thermal engine and can reach 12 km/h. Many events are held on the premises.

Saint-Roch church in Louesme

The church is devoted to

Saint Roch Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...

and is in the part of the commune that used to be the Louesme commune, before the municipal merger with Champignelles. It was inscribed as a national monument in 1992. The church was built during the Gothic period, between the 12th and 13th centuries near the creek dedicated to the goddess Loïma from where the name of the village came. The church was first dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

, but was later devoted to

after the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

of 1710. Many modification were done on the church in the 16th century, with the addition of large windows and a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

, but the building kept is unique

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, which is unaligned with the

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

. The

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

is from 1600, and the bell, surnamed "Marguerite" and weighing 180 kg, was blessed in 1722. Many ancient mural paintings from the 16th century were discovered and restored at the end of the 20th century.

References

External links