7. From St-Pois to Vire

Returning from Hastings in 1066, Richard Le Servin had the old church built and dedicated to St Patern, Bishop of Avranches. The present church dates from 1880 and is dedicated to St Louis. The two bells were in a temporary belfry. After one of the bells fell in 1909, it was decided to install them in the tower, to which a spire was added. When the local granite quarry refused to supply the stone at the price quoted, the tower was built using granite from Louvigné-du-Désert.
On leaving the village, at the top of the hill on the road to St Michel, in the corner of a field on your right, the Montjoie cross marks the spot from which pilgrims could see Mont-St-Michel.

This museum, set outside in a park, traces the history of the "Bleu de Vire" granite extraction sites. You can see a reconstructed quarry, the extraction methods used and the tools used. You can also see various sculpted pieces and how they were used.

This chapel was erected in memory of Pierre Lesage, known as "Les Nouettes" after the village where he was born in 1772. Returning to his village after a stay in Paris between 1789 and 1791, he went to church and, without knowing it, served mass to a priest under oath. Wanting to make amends, he devoted the rest of his life to serving refractory priests and organised a network of confessors. A pardon is held every Ascension Thursday.

In the Middle Ages, the Quintaine referred to the post topped by a dummy on which knights practised handling their lance. It later became a feudal fee.
Dismantled during the Revolution and moved, this piece of granite, with its old-fashioned shield, symbolises the lord's right.
At the end of the 18th century, it was used to mark water rights, divert floods or create a reservoir during periods of low water.
The entire structure (posts, weirs, spillways, cofferdams and sluice gates) formed a system for distributing the waters of the Dathée.
When the dam is emptied, fish can be retained and transferred to other water bodies.

In 1123, the Duke of Normandy, Henry I Beauclerc, had a square keep built on a spur, in a meander of the River Vire, with a first enclosure. In the 13th century, Saint Louis completed this defence with outer ramparts. For fear of Huguenot rebellions, Richelieu had the castle and its walls dismantled. All that remains today are the remains of the keep, the bases of some of the towers in the castle square and a few towers in the town, such as the clock tower.

The Gothic-style church of Notre Dame was built between the 13th and 16th centuries on the site of a Romanesque sanctuary by Henry I Beauclerc, Duke of Normandy (who also built the château).
It was listed as a Historic Monument in 1862.
It was badly damaged in 1944.