On the road

SIGHTS Notre-Dame Church

Built: 13th century.
History: Notre-Dame Church was built towards the end of the first third of the 12th century.

The nave dates from the 13th century but underwent alterations in the 17th century. The town was destroyed in 1472 and also suffered damage during the Wars of Religion. A portal was built at the end of the 15th century. Relics of Saint Clotilde were placed there in 1843. The German bombardments of June 1940 razed almost the entire old town to the ground and severely damaged the building.
Characteristics: The original building is constructed of tuff. The church retains an altarpiece originally housed in Auchy Abbey and a tomb dating from the mid-15th century, which came from Beaubec Abbey.
Listing: Listed as a Historic Monument in 1914.

Construction: 1956 to 1961.
History: Bombed on 7 June 1940 during the Battle of France, 80 per cent of Neuchâtel’s town centre was destroyed. Appointed in 1941 by the Ministry of Reconstruction to draw up the city’s reconstruction plan, architect and town planner Robert Auzelle proposed to group together the magistrates’ court, the town hall, the theatre and a multi-purpose hall around an esplanade, on the site of part of the former feudal motte overlooking the city. Once approved, the project was entrusted to him in 1952. The planning permission was granted in 1956, with Louis Roullé acting as project architect. The theatre was built in 1961. Sculptor Maurice Calka created a monumental sculpture for the site. The décor was designed by Jacques and Robert Perreau, members of the Saint-Honoré group, an informal association of designers who, after the war, were involved in the design of mass-produced furniture.
Listing: ‘Remarkable Contemporary Architecture’ designation.

Features: Housed in the oldest surviving half-timbered, corbelled town house in the town (16th century), the Mathon-Durand Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions introduces visitors to the history and traditions of Neufchâtel-en-Bray and the Pays de Bray through its rich and varied collections, spanning from prehistory to the early 20th century. The collections are spread over four floors. In the original vaulted cellar, a display area has been recreated dedicated to Normandy’s oldest AOP cheese: Neufchâtel. The ground floor and first floor house collections of archaeology, military art, sacred art, ethnography, numismatics, ceramics, decorative arts, furniture, and lost trades such as the tooth-puller, as well as a reconstruction of a traditional Bray-style interior. Then, on the second floor, beneath the magnificent original roof structure, the museum invites visitors to discover a model depicting the fortified town of Neuf-Castel, brought to life by a robot that triggers audio commentary and lighting effects.
Highlight: the museum houses the Foucarmon Bible, a 13th-century manuscript in five volumes, digitised by the Institute for Research and History of Texts and now viewable on an interactive terminal on the first floor.
Listed as: Musée de France.

Neufchâtel is a cow’s milk cheese produced in 134 villages around Neufchâtel-en-Bray. It has held Protected Designation of Origin status since 1969. Its heart-shaped form is characteristic. It is a lactic cheese, made predominantly from raw milk, with a soft texture and a bloomy rind, matured for at least ten days, and weighing between 100 and 600 g depending on the size.

Neufchâtel is a very old cheese. It was probably already being made in the 6th century and is officially documented from 1050 onwards. During the Hundred Years’ War, legend has it that, at Christmas time, young girls would offer heart-shaped cheeses to English soldiers as a token of their gratitude. In 1880, a farmer, Isidore Lefebvre, built a cheese dairy in Nesle-Hodeng (Seine-Maritime) where he could mould and mature the curd produced by local farmers. He supplied, amongst others, the Harrods department store in London. Production began to decline after the Second World War. By 1993, there were only thirty-one small-scale producers left, along with one industrial producer, which alone accounted for 45 per cent of Neufchâtel cheese production.

SIGHTS Magnanville Castle

Built: 18th century.
History: built between 1750 and 1753 by architect François II Franque on behalf of Charles Savalette, Keeper of the Royal Treasury, the château—whose splendour astonished contemporaries—was destroyed in the early 19th century. A more modest château, which still stands today and has been converted into a geriatric care centre, was rebuilt in 1807 for Baron Robillard de Magnanville, regent of the Banque de France.
Current use: care home.

Date of construction: 18th century.
Features: the outbuildings of the former farm consist of several structures, including the main house and the former stables, built between 1750 and 1755. A cowshed was situated near the stables. Alongside these were the farm buildings, the barns and a sheepfold. Today, this part has been converted into a socio-cultural centre. An imposing dovecote completes the complex of the former farm.
Current use: socio-cultural centre.

Spanning 11 hectares, Parc de la Vallée offers a magnificent view and a pleasant route for walks. The Vaucouleurs river runs through La Vallée, home to flora and fauna thriving in complete freedom, much to the delight of walkers. This green space also features play areas and an open-air theatre where events are held during the summer months.

Built: 10th to 20th centuries.
Style: Romanesque.
History: Saint-Étienne Church in Mantes-la-Ville was founded in 974. The church was damaged during Allied bombing raids in the Second World War, and restoration work began in 1968 and continued until 1981. There was a heavily damaged 16th-century porch, which was demolished during this restoration work.
Characteristics: an east-facing church with an elongated plan, comprising a single nave with two bays. The chevet is cut away at the corners. The western façade features a basket-handle arch, surmounted by a gable with an oculus. The walls are pierced by pointed-arch windows and supported by stepped buttresses. An extension has been added to the south wall. Bell tower situated at the level of the last bay of the nave.

The vast hall of the former Sulzer pumps and motors factory, established in 1958 and closed following a fire in 2003, will, from 2027, house part of the Mantes university campus, bringing together the Mantes-en-Yvelines University Institute of Technology, the Yvelines Institute of Science and Technology, ISTY, and a training centre for engineering apprentices, CFA Mécavenir. Work began in 2025.

Founded in 1885 in the Montmartre district of Paris by clarinettist Henri Selmer, the brand draws on the expertise of musicians to design, innovate and improve its range of instruments. For over a century, Selmer has been manufacturing the entire family of saxophones (sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass) in France at its workshops in Mantes-la-Ville, in a wide range of finishes (lacquered, silver-plated, black, brushed, solid silver, gold-plated, passivated). The company expanded into the United States as early as 1904 and established its factory in Mantes-la-Ville in 1919. In 1929, Selmer acquired the company founded by Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.

Since its inception, the brand has crafted trumpets for Louis Armstrong and Maurice André, saxophones for Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane, and even guitars for Django Reinhardt. In 2018, Thomas Pesquet took a Selmer saxophone into space. The Selmer range of instruments can be viewed in the brand’s showroom on Rue Marcadet in Paris.

Like Selmer, Buffet-Crampon, one of its main competitors, is based in Mantes-la-Ville. The brand, founded in 1825 on the Passage du Grand-Cerf in Paris and based in Mantes-la-Ville since 1850, is best known for its clarinets, but manufactures all kinds of wind instruments (saxophones, bassoons, oboes, English horns). Its repair workshop is still located in Mantes-la-Ville. The brand remains the world’s leading manufacturer of clarinets.