Follow the Roman road from Boussay along the wooded ridge of the Bois aux Prêtres, as I often do, and you will come across a curious grotto hidden in the woods on top of a slope. A sort of stone bower with a nod to the famous site at Lourdes, it is topped with a rather etiolated statue of the Virgin Mary.
Every year in early August pilgrims come to honour her, and a mass is celebrated in the woods by the grotto. Benches and trestles are laid out and a meal served in the clearing in front of the grotto in the evening.
Last summer I happened to walk up there just after the pilgrimage. The path was lined with home made bunting and the grotto filled with flowers. There was not a scrap of rubbish to be seen.
The statue was erected in August 1906 and I assume the current landowner's family commissioned the entire grotto construction.
Note that the land is privately owned, so technically you need permission to visit the chapel. The site also happens to be one of the best wild orchid sites in the area. I have recorded 14 species for the site.
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