Sources du Loir et fontaine Saint-Éman

Saint-Éman

Saint-Éman is a hamlet of damp bocage set on the edge of the Beauce plateau, in a small valley where more than a hundred springs break through the chalk on barely 460 hectares. It was here, near the wash-house, that a report by the officer Poudra fixed the official source of the Loir in 1857, a river of 317 km that joins the Sarthe at Briollay; tradition had previously placed it over towards Le Thieulin. The village owes its name to Éman, who according to his Life came from Cappadocia in the 6th century, was trained in Rome, ordained at Orléans, then evangelised the Chartres country and was massacred by brigands with two companions on 16 May 560 on the site of the sanctuary. He was credited with cures, exorcisms and even resurrections; the 15th-century church preserves a bronze reliquary holding one of his bones, presented locally as his only known relic. The cult took above all the form of a rain rite: in May the inhabitants carried the saint's wooden bust in procession and plunged it into the votive fountain to obtain the water needed for the crops — a use of the saint as "rain-maker" well attested in the Perche. Marcel Proust, whose family kept a house at nearby Illiers, knew these springs: they feed the pages on the Vivonne and the "Guermantes way" of In Search of Lost Time. A necessary caveat: most of the documentation on the legend of Saint Éman comes from a local heritage association and from late hagiographical sources, to be read as tradition rather than biography.

Association Histoire, Légendes et Patrimoine de Saint-Éman — les sources du Loir ↗

Getting there : Saint-Éman is around 6 km north-east of Illiers-Combray and 25 km south-west of Chartres, by the small roads of the Perche-Gouët. The spring basin, the wash-house, the pond and the hydraulic ram of 1876 are freely accessible in the centre of the hamlet, which has fewer than a hundred inhabitants. Note: the coordinates correspond to the village, accurate to within a few dozen metres. The church, which houses the reliquary, opens only occasionally — enquire at the Illiers-Combray tourist office (02 37 24 24 00). The site is the starting point of the "La Vallée du Loir à vélo" cycle route, 320 km to Angers.

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

Ambient sound