The hometown of Bruno Thibout (a pro racer between 1993 and 2004) first appeared on the Tour de France map in 1977 when it hosted an intermediate sprint won by Rik Van Linden on the stage between Rouen and Roubaix. It subsequently hosted two starts, in 1985 for a stage to Roubaix and in 1988 for a stage to Liévin, with victory going to Dutch riders Henri Manders and Jelle Nijdam, respectively. The women’s peloton paused there during the 2007 Route de France, when Rochelle Gilmore won the sprint.
- Commune in Seine-Maritime (76)
- Population: 4,700; 24,900 within the Bray-Eawy municipality; 1,261,000 within Seine-Maritime
- neufchatelenbray.fr
Neufchâtel-en-Bray and cycling
Famous for its cheese, Neufchâtel-en-Bray has hosted two stages of the men’s Tour de France heading north, and on both occasions a Dutch rider won by a narrow margin over the peloton. In 1985, Henri Manders, having broken away with his compatriot Teun van Vliet, let him do most of the work before winning solo, 11 seconds ahead of the pack. Three years later, Jelle Nijdam, no stranger to such feats, launched his attack 4 km from the finish line to catch the main group off guard and hold off their comeback. On both occasions, it was Sean Kelly who won the peloton’s sprint.
In 2007, the small town in Seine-Maritime also hosted the finish of the first stage of the Route de France, where Australian Rochelle Gilmore won the sprint ahead of her compatriot Belinda Goss. Oceania road champion that same year, Gilmore also won two stages of the Giro d’Italia in 2001 and 2003 and retired from racing in 2015 before becoming a commentator and then taking on sporting challenges. She has climbed Mount Everest and Lhotse and trained hard to take part in the Dakar Rally. She is a member of the Road Commission of the International Cycling Union (UCI).
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.
Municipal administrative centre
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.
Mathon-Durand Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions
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 cheese
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.