8. Meaux to Jouarre

Saint Stephen's Cathedral surprises with its unfinished facade: above the three portals, the upper floor of the high windows leads the eyes to only one tower, in flamboyant style, on the northern side. Despite its 350 years of construction, it is relatively harmonious and its short length (barely 2/3 of that of Paris) is compensated by an impressive rise in all its five ships. It is home to the tomb of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the "eagle" of Meaux in the 17th century.
More information: Wilkipédia

Saint Fiacre is an Irish monk who lived in the 7th century and is attested in writings from the 11th century. He was welcomed by Saint Faron, a monk in the Columbian tradition who had founded a monastery in Meaux. He settled on the land of Le Breuil, now the village of Saint-Fiacre, to live as a hermit. The land of the hermitage was fertile and the monk fed all the poor with vegetables and fruit, later becoming the patron saint of gardeners. Due to the influx of pilgrims, the hermitage became a priory attached to the abbey of Saint-Faron de Meaux. It is still celebrated every 30 August by brotherhoods of gardeners in Europe and is honoured in Quebec. In 1683 King Louis XIV, accompanied by Maria Theresa, made a pilgrimage to Saint-Fiacre.

In the 13th century, the body of the Saint was placed in a shrine, creating a very flourishing pilgrimage until the Revolution. He was invoked for diseases of the rectum, which are called the Saint-Fiacre disease. This pilgrimage route has been reactivated and you can discover it on the information boards in front of the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Fiacre.

In Paris, the Saint-Fiacre hotel, which had become a carriage factory, gave a new name to the carriages: the fiacre.

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Only the imposing ruins of the royal castle of Montceaux-lès-Meaux remain. The latter was yet in the Renaissance a major place of power and knew many intrigues in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
In 1498 the castle of Montceaux was a modest manor belonging to Michel Saligot, lord of Montceaux and Montretout. It was sold in 1555 to Henri II who offered it to his mother, Catherine de Medici, who stayed there occasionally and undertook restoration and embellishment work under the direction of the architect Philibert Delorme.
In 1595, King Henri IV offered it to his favourite, Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was from this castle that the reconciliation between Henri IV and the Duke of Mayenne, head of the Catholic League that put an end to the Wars of Religion, took place. On the death of Gabrielle d'Estrées, the king gave the domain to the queen, Marie de Medici. Works are then started under the direction of the architect Salomon de Brosse. The castle was demolished during the Revolution. Only the chapel and the buildings of the forecourt transformed into a bourgeois house and the eastern part of the castle became a farmhouse.
The Royal Castle of Montceaux les Meaux, classified as a Historic Monument for its park and buildings, is a high place in the history of France.

During your stage you will walk on the Dhuys aqueduct, it was already the case during the previous stage.
In the 19th century hygiene became a concern for the city of Paris and the waters of the Seine were polluted, as well as the canals crossing the capital. The need for drinking water was urgent, and the capture of more distant sources had to be considered. The city asked the engineer Belgrand, then in charge of the Water and Forestry Department, to divert the waters of the Dhuys from Pargny-la-Dhuys in the Aisne to bring them to Paris by building an aqueduct. The aqueduct is 130 kilometres long with a difference in altitude of 20 metres. It was begun in 1863 and completed two years later. To cross the obstacles - rivers and valleys - the aqueduct uses siphons using the principle of communicating vessels which was already well mastered in Roman times. The aqueduct supplies 20,000 m3 of water per day to the city of Paris.
Milestones, siphons and manholes trace its course.
As the canal crosses very loose ground, collapses are frequent and lead to major restoration work. In the 1990s, the city of Paris abandoned this source of drinking water in favour of the treatment of water from the Seine and the Marne. The aqueduct runs through the new conurbation, Val d'Europe, and in 2016 the commune will buy almost the entire canal from the city of Paris for its local use.

A first church is mentioned in the 13th century, it seems that the pillars of the choir date from this period.
Works have been carried out over the centuries. The western façade is preceded by a masonry porch. It is surmounted by an oculus and then by a small semicircular bay. It is framed by high buttresses.
The church has beautiful 17th century wainscotings. They were restored in the 20th century.

In the life of Saint Colomban, written around 640, the monk Jonas de Bobbio indicates that Colomban and his companions were welcomed by the family of Authaire, an aristocrat at the court of Austrasia. The domus where this servant of Théodebert (or Thibert) king of Austrasia and friend of Colomban, resided, would be located in the commune of Ussy-sur-Marne.
If archaeological excavations do not allow us to date the church of Ussy-sur-Marne with certainty, it is very likely that Authaire, a fervent Christian, was buried in a consecrated place near his residence.
The hagiograph of Saint Colomban tells us that he blessed two children of Authaire, Dadon who became bishop of Rouen under the name of Saint-Ouen and Adon founder of the monastery of Jouarre.
In the church, a 19th century stained glass window reminds us of this meeting. This stained glass window was restored in 2013 by the St Authaire Parish Association with the help of the Town Hall.

The foundations of the church allow us to date it from the 9th century, during the following centuries several extensions were made. It is composed of a nave with a north aisle that extends to a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The nave and the north aisle are separated by a row of large pointed arches supported by quadrangular piers. The nave is carpentry. The choir is vaulted.
The church is listed as a Historic Monument for its 11th and 12th century nave, and the glass canopies of its 16th century Chapel of the Virgin.

The famous Irish writer, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, wanting to leave the hustle and bustle of the Parisian salons had bought a small house on the heights of Ussy-sur-Marne. He liked to say that the hilly landscapes of the Brie region reminded him of his native Ireland.
This small second home is privately owned.
Discover this episode of the writer's life on the website of the association pour la sauvegarde d'Ussy

Before arriving in Jouarre you will go around the park of the Château de Venteuil. In 1760, the Baron d'Obenheim, a German lieutenant-general, had the castle built by the architect Saget des Louvières. It was acquired 150 years later by Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu. This elegant 18th century residence with sober lines was the residence of the Jussieu family, a family that included five famous botanists. Today the property is private and cannot be visited.

In the 7th century the lands of Jouarre belonged to the family of Authaire, an Austrasian nobleman who had welcomed the Colomban monks and his companions in 610. Colomban blessed two of his sons Dadon, future bishop of Rouen under the name of Saint Ouen and Adon who founded the monastery of Jouarre around 630. He called upon the abbot of the monastery of Luxeuil, founded by Saint Colomban in 590, to receive monks who would organise the community according to the rule of the good fathers Benedict and Colomban as practised at Luxeuil. Initially it was a double monastery welcoming monks and nuns in two separate buildings. In the 9th century, the abbey was an important centre of pilgrimage in the influence of Aachen, capital of the Empire. This new destination for pilgrims was to open up points of reception and trade, and the town of Jouarre was born.
A community of Benedictine nuns animates it nowadays. The whole of Notre-Dame Abbey is classified as a historical monument on the 1840 list.
The Romanesque Tower of the Abbey is undoubtedly the monument that best sums up the history of Jouarre. Built at the end of the 11th century on Gallo-Roman foundations, it is attached to the facade of the abbey church. Its high silhouette and its bells have made it a faithful landmark for travellers from the outset: "Toujours je veille" is still the motto of the town today.

The church, begun in 1440 with the tower and choir and completed in 1559, retains three 16th century glass canopies, damaged during the Second World War.
A beautiful calvary and reliquary hunts remind visitors that Jouarre was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.