By car, by bike or on foot, all means are good
to get to La Chapelle de Saint-Maclou!
In the commune of Mézidon Vallée d’Auge in Mesnil-Mauger, towards Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglais at a place called Saint-Maclou, this chapel, an old parish church, offers a beautiful panorama of the plain of Saint-Pierre-sur- Dives (Saint-Pierre en Auge) to the south and the Viette valley to the north.
12 km from Saint-Pierre-sur -Dives (Saint-Pierre en Auge), in Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglais on the road to Saint-Maclou, the chapel is located between the D16 and the D154…
SAINTE-MARIE-AUX ANGLAIS: HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF A PLACE
We have often argued about the origin of this English term attached to the name of a church or a commune.
Mentions of this people’s name “to the English” ;» are numerous in Norman toponymy where we find it among others in the Angloischeville, the Englaicherie and the numerous Englesqueville, Calvados, Anglesqueville-Lestre de la Manche, Anglesqueville-la-Braslon, Anglesqueville- L’Esneval or Anglesqueville-sur-Saône, Seine-Maritime.
On a few occasions, François de Beaurepaire, great-grandson of Charles de Beaurepaire, who lived in the 19th century, addressed the question of these English towns which, according to him, evoke the Anglo-Saxon penetration which accompanied the colonization of the Vikings.
In the present case, the adjective following the name of the parish or commune, appears, according to Michel Cottin, to be a surname, revealing the presence of a family of this name and this origin.
This toponym would then be of a later creation perhaps corresponding to the fixing of family names at the end of the 12th century.
If, however, another explanation exists, we would welcome the enlightened opinion of historians !