Informations directionnelles

Traverser la route (en étant vigilant !), emprunter la bordure de route sur 50 mètres et prendre le chemin à gauche. Continuer sur la D171 jusqu’à la prochaine intersection. Prendre le chemin à droite  jusqu’à la grille du Domaine de Villarceaux.

Prochain point : lat="49.125209095" lon="1.706473503"

An agricultural landscape, dotted with remarkable domains

A village made up of eight hamlets

Etymologically speaking, the name Chaussy comes from the vulgar latin Calciata (via), meaning “road paved with limestone”. Chaussy appears in scrolls as early as 690, under the name Calciatus, and as Calciacum in 854.
Located at the bottom of the narrow Chaussy stream valley, this commune is made up of eight hamlets: Chaussy and Bas-Chaussy, in the centre of the village, and a little further on, Haute-souris, les Petites Maisons, la Comté, Villarceaux, Boucagny and Cul-froid. The commune has extraordinary built heritage. The Méré tower, the Saint-Laurent chapel and the church are all listed as regional historical monuments, and  the entire Villarceaux estate is classed as a national historical monument.
For a long time, several of Chaussy's farms and manors belonged to a single owner. At the beginning of the 19th century, this person was Jacques Daumy. In 1847, Louis Cartier, founder of Cartier jewellery, bought the Château de Villarceaux and the Château du Couvent. He owned 20 built properties, including the Villarceaux sheep farm and the farms of Méré, Chaussy and Basse-cour, as well as various plots of land here and there, which he rented to crop-growers. All in all, Cartier owned around three quarters of the entire commune.

A mosaic of different landscapes

The plateau is planted with field crops and the slopes are mainly prairie land. The built up areas are located at the bottom of the small valley. Forests (like the Villers or Moinerie forests) can be found on the sides and peaks of the plateaus and in some places at the bottom of the valley. In the past, the sunny hillsides were planted with cherry trees and grape vines. Traces of their presence can be seen in the place names: Sente des Vignes and Côte Sucrée. Lastly, part of the commune is taken up by the Villarceaux estate and the golf course.
Rows of trees, hedges and thickets criss-cross the fields, structuring the landscape. The hedgerows play an important role in the local ecosystem, providing habitat for numerous species, including birds, mammals, insects and reptiles. They also help to limit soil erosion and facilitate irrigation with their roots system. 
In the hamlets of Comté and Villarceaux, the landscape is dotted with ventilation chimneys, left over from underground stone quarries. Lutetian limestone from these quarries provided cut stone and rubble stone, while Cuise sand was used for construction and backfill. These quarries are connected up to each other and were subsequently used  as mushroom farms until around 1974.