Version Française    

Useful links

The House of Local products and Gastronomy:
www.maisonduterroir.fr

Cherrueix Sea Train:
www.decouvrirlabaie.com

Useful links

Camping de l'Aumône :
www.camping-de-laumone.fr

Camping du Tenzor de la Baie : www.le-tenzor-de-la-baie.com

Useful links


Noroît Sailing Club – Sandyachting Centre: noroitclub.free.fr

Cherrueix

Cherrueix (to be pronounced «chérruai» locally) is a coastal village situated North of the Ille-et-Vilaine department. Bordered by the English Channel, this village of more than 1150 inhabitants is right in the middle of the Breton part of the Bay of the Mont Saint-Michel, about 20 kms away from Saint-Malo and 8 from Dol-de-Bretagne. When the weather is clear and fine, one can see, to the left, Cancale, to the right, Granville and to the very right, further away, the Mont Saint-Michel.

With the Garlic Festival and its 10 000 visitors on average a year, the village demonstrates its capacity at organising major festive and public events.

This small but yet very picturesque village further contributes to the friendliness and festive and family atmosphere everyone looks for with this kind of events.

Together with agriculture, mussel farming is one of the main economic activities of Cherrueix. Lately, small housing developments of ten or so houses have sprung up or are currently being built. Many environment organisations are ensuring the protection and quality of life of this seaside village. “Operation Grand Site”, driven by the local authorities and the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development will enhance the heritage of the village and implement a rigorous policy of environmental protection. It includes the partial disappearance of networks, the creation of a house of the Bay within the Saline windmill and the necessary arrangements to reconcile tourism and nature conservation.

Places of interest and monuments

The village counts three buildings registered on the additional inventory of historic monuments:

• Saline windmill,
• Colimassière windmill,
• Mondrins windmill.

These three windmills, dating back to the XIXth century were registered on 7 November 1977. They illustrate the very important cereal activity of swamps around Dol. At one stage, one could count up to 11 windmills in activity across and around the village. Unfortunately, none of them is in use, today.

There are other places and monuments of interest in the village:

• The “Dol way" is a former coastal way, a side of which to the east of the village gave the name of the locality “The Bottom Road” (or Le Bas-Chemin), and which runs 2,7 kms to the West of the village in the hamlet of the street (or hameau de la rue). 4,3 kms away from Cherrueix, the classic art chapel of Sainte-Anne (Saint-Broladre) marks the Western limit of the former dune dike on which this road was constructed in the early Middle Ages.

• The "Bench of Hermelles" (or “Banc des Hermelles”) is a sandy cliff produced by small sand worms, which make sand their housing environment. The Bench of Hermelles spreads over 250 acres and is 1,50 m high. This is a unique site in Europe.

• The dike of Duchess Anne or the dike of Brittany is a dike dating back to the XIIIth century which is 20 km long from Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes (Richeux castle) up to the chapel Sainte-Anne. Walkers and joggers can contemplate a variety of landscapes, all along the dike : swamps, polders, strikes.

• Notre-Dame de la Garde is a statue of the Virgin Mary set up in 1888 on the dike. On 7 May 1888, abbots Richard and Blanchard visited the parishioners and asked them if they wanted to make a donation in order to rise a cast-iron statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the rock. Thanks to the generosity of each, the sum was quickly gathered. With the authorizations of Dikes and Swamps, and with the agreement of cardinal Charles Place of Rennes to give the name of "Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde" to this future monument, the statue was set up to protect the bay, fishermen, sailors and farmers. The inauguration took place on 19 August 1888, with all the clergy and the priests from numerous surrounding villages attending. Roads were transformed into leaf avenues, tall gates were built up and anchors were made of shells. Along the procession, one could see children carry the attributes of the local building trades together with sheaves of wheat and fishermen nets. Six thousand people attended the ceremony and the blessing of the statue.

• Cherrueix church was built in the XVth century, shaped like a boat. It comprises a Romanic nave and a Gothic chorus.

• The House by the sea front used to be the village public school for girls ; it was restored in 2005. It is now the public library and it is used as an exhibition hall and a meeting place where local associations can gather.

• The War Memorial of the Great War was built in 1921 and restored in 2006 as it had become old. Upon pressure from some secularist activists, the cross at the top of the War Memorial was sawed, even if there had been one cross before which was blessed and even if the great majority of people who died for France from this Breton village were Christian.

• The Manor House of the Charity also called the “castle” was the house of the "Sires of the Aumosne ". In the Middle Ages, lands were called charities and belonged to the Church, offered to God by devotion. The word charity means a house which belonged to a church or to a monastery and which received incomes intended for the poor people. It is likely that this manor house was of religious origin and was then deconsecrated. It is a Louis XIII construction style, with small windows and round front walls and ledges; above the front door is an arcade in Gothic arch dating back to 1619. The “castle” belonged to the Uguet family, lords of Cherrueix in 1460, to the XXX family of Cherrueix in 1513, to the Franchet family during the League and to the Uguet family in the XVIIIth century. The Lord of the Charity was considered as the founding Lord of the parish. After becoming a farm, it has now been turned into a holiday cottage and lodge (with room for 22 horses). A campsite has also been arranged for tents and caravans.

• The Sea Train allows tourists to discover the “bench of Hermelles” and the wooden fisheries dating back to the XIIth century, when tides allow.

• The beach offers a magnificent view on the sea, the mussel beds at low tides, Cancale and the Mont Saint-Michel. Numerous sandyachts liven up the landscape.

• Mussel beds are wooden pickets on which mussels grow that can be seen at low tides.

• The chapel Sainte-Anne, though on the land of Saint-Broladre but closer to the village of Cherrueix, is at the edge of the dike of Duchess Anne.