Coulommiers and Crécy-la-Chapelle: The Templars' Commandery, Brie Cheese and the Little Venice of the Brie
Île-de-France, France
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Coulommiers and Crécy-la-Chapelle: The Templars' Commandery, Brie Cheese and the Little Venice of the Brie
225 + 100 XP
Coulommiers gave its name to a famous cheese of the Brie, and on the hill of Montbillard above the town stands one of the best-preserved Templar commanderies in France and the most complete anywhere north of the Loire, around a courtyard 100 m by 50: the chapter room with no windows at all, the Gothic chapel of 1205, a dovecote with 393 nest holes, and a medieval garden of 4,000 m² laid out in 1993 with 250 plants known in the Middle Ages. Down the Grand Morin, Crécy-la-Chapelle is the Venise briarde, crossed by three brassets of the river, its water lined with washhouses, mills and footbridges, and its Gothic collegiate church was built between the middle of the 13th century and the 15th.
Required Activities
1
of 5
In the chapter room of the commandery, look for a window and find that there is none, and never was — the brothers met behind barred doors, and the benches you see were brought from the Benedictine abbey of Jouarre. Then look up inside the dovecote and count the tiers of nest holes: there are 393 of them, and that number was how you measured a landowner, in this case about 500 hectares
2
of 5
Find a farm-made coulommiers rather than a supermarket one — the cheese has not been made in Coulommiers itself for a long time, and the surviving farm production comes from around Jouarre, Boissy-le-Châtel and Doue. Check it before you eat it: 13 to 15 cm across, 3 cm thick, no more than 500 g, a white downy rind flecked with small reddish points and a straw-yellow paste, ripe right to the centre
3
of 5
Walk all three brassets — the branches the Grand Morin is split into through the town — and find the washhouses and mills built onto them, then take the Passage du Guet off the rue Dam' Gilles: through a low porch, a narrow paved alley zigzags between two towers of the town's first wall and comes out on a footbridge over the water. The house beside the entrance, where Corot lodged, carries a plaque
4
of 5
In the collegiate church, stand under the choir and count the twelve ribs radiating from a single keystone, then look for the marks of the water: the iron ties put across the vaults around 1641 to hold them, and the floor raised three times — in 1641, 1676 and 1730 — because the Morin kept flooding the building. The first four bays of the nave are 15th-century rebuilding after the English took Crécy in 1421, and the church was reconsecrated on 16 May 1429
5
of 5
In the chapel of Sainte-Anne find the wall paintings — Saint George killing the dragon, an Annunciation, a Christ in glory and four angels — then the ten carved capitals holding the vault, six of foliage and four of human heads, and the paschal lamb on the keystone eleven metres up. Before you leave, find all four of its doors, still there: the monks' door north to the lodge, the dead door south to the cemetery, the main door west to the chapter room, and the commander's door above it
In the chapter room of the commandery, look for a window and find that there is none, and never was — the brothers met behind barred doors, and the benches you see were brought from the Benedictine abbey of Jouarre. Then look up inside the dovecote and count the tiers of nest holes: there are 393 of them, and that number was how you measured a landowner, in this case about 500 hectares
Find a farm-made coulommiers rather than a supermarket one — the cheese has not been made in Coulommiers itself for a long time, and the surviving farm production comes from around Jouarre, Boissy-le-Châtel and Doue. Check it before you eat it: 13 to 15 cm across, 3 cm thick, no more than 500 g, a white downy rind flecked with small reddish points and a straw-yellow paste, ripe right to the centre
Walk all three brassets — the branches the Grand Morin is split into through the town — and find the washhouses and mills built onto them, then take the Passage du Guet off the rue Dam' Gilles: through a low porch, a narrow paved alley zigzags between two towers of the town's first wall and comes out on a footbridge over the water. The house beside the entrance, where Corot lodged, carries a plaque
In the collegiate church, stand under the choir and count the twelve ribs radiating from a single keystone, then look for the marks of the water: the iron ties put across the vaults around 1641 to hold them, and the floor raised three times — in 1641, 1676 and 1730 — because the Morin kept flooding the building. The first four bays of the nave are 15th-century rebuilding after the English took Crécy in 1421, and the church was reconsecrated on 16 May 1429
In the chapel of Sainte-Anne find the wall paintings — Saint George killing the dragon, an Annunciation, a Christ in glory and four angels — then the ten carved capitals holding the vault, six of foliage and four of human heads, and the paschal lamb on the keystone eleven metres up. Before you leave, find all four of its doors, still there: the monks' door north to the lodge, the dead door south to the cemetery, the main door west to the chapter room, and the commander's door above it
Before you go
The commandery is a long-running restoration site run largely by volunteers: the lodge is structurally unstable and closed to visitors, other buildings are propped and scaffolded, and opening is limited to set afternoons in season — check before driving up to Montbillard. Crécy's municipal museum has been closed for years, so do not plan around it. If you want the cheese, come for the Foire aux fromages et aux vins de Coulommiers, running since 1967, and buy at a farm stall rather than in town. The brassets at Crécy flood: the riverside paths and the collegiate church have both been under water repeatedly, so check after heavy rain.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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