Chapelle Notre-Dame du Chêne

Saint-Martin-de-Connée (Vimartin-sur-Orthe)

In the middle of the nave, on the exact spot of the wonder, stands the trunk of an oak: it is this that people have come to see, and to pray before, for more than three centuries. Tradition tells that a lord of Averton — a priest, according to another version — was one day pursued by a furious bull; he implored the Virgin before the oak on which her image was fixed, and the animal, suddenly calmed, moved away. In thanksgiving, a sanctuary was built on the spot in the 17th century, and the chapel's stained-glass windows still tell the scene. The influx of pilgrims and their gifts gradually transformed the oratory: the choir was rebuilt between 1870 and 1875, then the nave and facade in the late 1890s, and the enlarged chapel was blessed on 3 September 1899. Its windows echo the great Marian apparitions — La Salette, Lourdes and Pontmain, its neighbour in the Mayenne. What strikes today's visitor is the undiminished vitality of the devotion: at the foot of the oak pile up flowers, military medals, crutches, children's slippers and padlocks, while the prayer books fill up every year with petitions — "protect our family, protect our friends". Marble plaques of thanksgiving, some of them earlier than 1900, line the walls. Its facade restored in 2024 thanks to donations, this chapel of the Coëvrons offers one of the most touching examples of rural popular piety in western France, in a peaceful little valley that invites a pause.

Getting there : Hamlet of La Chapelle-du-Chêne, 53160 Saint-Martin-de-Connée (commune of Vimartin-sur-Orthe), on the borders of the Mayenne and the Sarthe. Free admission all year round, guided tours for groups on request, picnic area (tel. 02 43 37 42 58).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound