www.visitalencon.com. An attractive market town on the Upper Sarthe, Alencon was a famous lace making centre in the 17th-18thC, but the only examples you’ll see today are displayed in the Ecole de Dentelle and local museum. Place Lamagdeleine, has a colourful fruit and vegetable market on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Work started on the Eglise de Notre-Dame during a period of English occupation in the Hundred Years War. The fa√笵cade is distinguished by its Flamboyant tripod gables pitched high over the triple arches, and the locals liken the fancy stonework to their famous laceware. The elegantly vaulted 14thC nave, which ends in a simple 18thC reconstruction, harbours some lovely 16thC stained glass; and near the door, the Chapelle de Sainte-Thérèse is dedicated to the local saint who was baptised here, and born at 50 rue Blaise on January 2, 1873.

Cobbled streets lead to the circular Halle au Blé (grain hall), with a rear view of the Vieux Château, now a prison. Further north, the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, in a former Jesuit college off rue Jullien, presents an exhaustive history of the lace industry, 17th-20thC French paintings, and a bizarre collection of Cambodian artefacts.