8. Jambville to Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

Jambville Castle is based on 13th century vaulted cellars and replaces a first castle from the 14th century.
The second castle was built in the 17th century around the tower with a spiral staircase. In front of this building was a French garden. In the 1760s, the de Maussion family, whose arms still decorate the castle, bought the property and transformed it entirely.
The castle was enlarged and the main body was built with its two pediments. The building is then oriented north-south. The French garden is replaced by an English park decorated with follies (decorative monuments) such as the Greek temple, the pheasant pond or St Damien. The avenue of lime trees is then created to give this magnificent perspective.
Today the castle has been a training centre for the Scouts and Guides of France since 1952.

The church, a listed municipal building, is remarkable for its vaulted choir and barrel vault (late 11th century) and for the geminated bays of the bell tower (12th century) topped by a gabled roof.
This Romanesque bell tower, one of the oldest in Vexin, rises above a ribbed vault on four massive pillars decorated with variously sculpted capitals.
The 13th and 14th century chapels, the nave rebuilt between 1857 and 1863, illustrate the developments linked to the development of the history of the village.
Placed under the name of Saint-Sulpice, the parish was served until 1793 by the canons regular of the Order of Premonstratensian founded by Saint Norbert. At present it is part of the parish sector of Fontenay-Saint-Père, diocese of Versailles.

According to tradition, this church was built by the Count of Meulan, Galeran II. He was one of the faithful followers of the King of England. In 1204 King Philip II Augustus confiscated the county, which was attached to the Royal Estate.
The building built in the 12th century was enlarged in the 13th century. At first glance you can see a stocky ensemble that partly enshrines the bell tower surmounted by a stone spire. Over the centuries the works follow one another but the nave remains undersized in relation to the whole.
The church has kept its Romanesque portal, without lintel or tympanum. Inside you can admire the baptismal font (12th century), a Virgin and Child and a Christ on the Cross (16th century).

The church would date from the 11th century, it remains its bell tower built on four square pillars with vaulted edges and formed by a stump of stone topped by a stone spire.  The single nave is not vaulted and the apse with cut-off sides vaulted in cul-de-four gives to the whole an extremely sober architecture. Around the middle of the 12th century, the nave was enlarged by the addition of aisles to the north and south.
The squat Romanesque bell tower seems unfinished: it seems to lack an octagonal floor. Initially the bell tower was free to the north and south. In the 16th century, a seigneurial chapel of an indefinable style was added to the south, and later a sacristy was built to the north. It is above all the interior of the church that retains all its authenticity.    
The church's furnishings are worth a visit, such as the sixteenth-century baptismal font and a very extensive statuary.

Nothing remains of the Benedictine priory and its church founded in the 11th century by the monks of Fécamp except for the foundations found during the 1978 restoration. The building underwent various alterations in the 13th, 16th and 19th centuries.
The most interesting part is the entrance. Built around the second half of the 11th century, and attributed to Nicolas Mercier. This porch is framed by two columns surmounted by capitals decorated with acanthus leaves, enhanced by a pediment which was decorated with a frieze, now hidden under a layer of plaster.
Inside, the Renaissance-style aisle was built around the middle of the 16th century. On one of the pillars is the monogram of Francis the First (salamander).

In the first century AD, Saint Nicaire, a disciple of Saint Denis, lived in our region to evangelize the inhabitants of the banks of the Seine at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and Mantes-la-Jolie via Triel (Triellum in Latin), proving the origin of the commune.
Triel would draw its name from the existence of three islands formed by the course of the Seine at the place where the Roman road crossed the river.
The church, begun under Saint Louis in the mid-13th century, stands on the foundations of an older cult building, as evidenced by the discovery of Merovingian sarcophagi that can be admired at the Museum of National Antiquities in St Germain-en-Laye. The nave and its two aisles, the transept and the two bays that precede the ascent to the choir remain from this primitive construction.
The restoration undertaken in the 16th century with the construction of the choir, above the "chemin du Roy" in order to leave a passage for pedestrians, as provided for in the royal edicts, gives it this original character that can only be found in two other churches in France.

The important river activity explains the presence on the quays of barges "restaurant," or "theater", and also the barge "je sers". This barge built in concrete in 1919 was first used to transport coal. It became the headquarters of the mutual social assistance of the bargees in 1935, then the floating bargemen's chapel in 1936, and is now also a place of reception for migrants, especially Tibetans, since 2014. The nearby school was initially reserved for bargemen's children.

The name of this dungeon would come from "Mons Jovis" (Mount Jupiter), designating the rocky spur on which it rests, ideal for watching over the Seine. Built at the end of the 11th century on the remains of a wooden fortification burnt down during a feudal war, this tower has imposing dimensions (15 metres high and three levels) and is a major element of the landscape of Vieux-Conflans. It is a precious witness of the first generation of stone castles in Île-De-France, one of the most beautiful specimens of a quadrangular Romanesque keep remaining in the region. Deprived of a roof in the 16th century, it remained the seat of the barony of Conflans until the Revolution. The west and south sides have geminated windows, very rare in the military architecture of that time. The tower was donated to the town in 1931 by the Cornudet family.

The Château du Prieuré belongs to the "upper" town of Conflans, with its Saint-Maclou church and the Montjoie tower, an 11th century keep.
It is located on the site of a former priory of Saint Honorine (hence its name) founded in 1080 by Ives III de Beaumont, known as "le clerc". Only the 13th century cellar remains.
The priory is very prosperous, the relics of Saint Honorine being the subject of a very popular pilgrimage (hence the name of the town). It was sold as national property during the Revolution. Jules Gévelot, a wealthy industrialist, creator of the famous brand of hunting cartridges that bears his name, deputy of the Oise and mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, bought back the various lots and rebuilt the religious estate. Then, from 1865, he redeveloped the buildings and the park as a personal residence in the Napoleon III style, as we see it today.
The property was purchased by the commune in 1932.
Today the castle is home to the inland waterway museum.
Website of the Inland Navigation Museum

The construction of the church dates back to the 11th century and several restorations and extensions followed one another until the 19th century. Around 1800, the relics of Saint Honorine were transported there. Relics to which were added those of Saint Samson and Saint Margaret. The building has a Gothic nave with aisles separated from the choir by an imposing 12th century span supporting the bell tower, whose spire was struck by lightning and rebuilt in 1927. Major restoration work has been undertaken in recent years on the east and west facades, the porch, as well as the sculptures, stained glass windows, bedside table and woodwork.