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Le Val Saint Sulpice

Rue du Val Saint Sulpice, 49125 Cheffes

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Sulpice Severus was a disciple of Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours in the 4th century. The great abbey founded on the banks of the Loire subsequently established a network of villae stretching as far as the Sarthe valley. Sulpice the Pious, in the 7th century, was the patron saint of children.

Upstream from the village, this valley led to the parish’s former common pastures. The place name appears as early as 1060 in a deed confirmed by Geoffroy Barbu, Count of Anjou. In it, Hubert Ragot donated the church of Cheffes to the monks of Saint Nicolas, including ‘a stretch of the Seine and a combre (fishing weir) at Saint Sulpice’. The oldest parts of the Chapel of Notre Dame de Saint Sulpice, recently renamed Notre Dame des Eaux, date back to the 11th century. The masonry incorporates fragments of much older falun sarcophagi. The first timber-framed bridge was built in 1867; it opened up the village, which had previously been oriented towards Champigné, towards Tiercé and its railway station. It cemented Cheffes’ industrial development in the 19th century. A metal bridge followed fifteen years later, facilitating the passage of tow horses, which finally replaced the boatmen and their human-powered tow teams. Blasted up at the end of the Second World War, only the old masonry abutment remains. It was not until 1967 that the current bridge, situated downstream of the chapel, was built.

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Listing provided by Office de tourisme Anjou Loir et Sarthe (updated by the source on 16/07/2026).

Tourist office data: DATAtourisme, Licence Ouverte (French open licence), updated 21 October 2026.