This commune covers an area of 16.4km² and has 510 inhabitants who are known as ‘Laignerans’. It is located 11km south-west of Troyes. Reached via the D83, D94, or the N77, it is 9 minutes from junction 20 (Torvilliers) of the A5 from Paris.
Consisting of the main village and the hamlet of Les Grandes Vallées, Laines-aux-bois is at the foot of the historic hill of Montaigu and on the doorstep of the Pays d’Othe. With the wooded hill on one side and the plain covered in fields on the other, Laines-aux-bois has an exceptional natural landscape. With voluntary organisations and facilities provided by the commune, such as the primary school and library, Laines-aux-bois is a pleasant place to live.
In the middle of the village, next to the Mairie, the church of Saint-Pierre-ès-liens, which dates from the 16th century, has a south door that has been classified as an historic monument since 1955. The church was partially destroyed by the 1910 floods, but the flamboyant doorway, the first bay of the nave and the bell tower survives.
It houses a number of sculptures that are classified as objects considered to be historic monuments, including a Pietà, a sculpture of St Catherine, St Roch and St Antoine dating from the 16th century, a 15th-century St Marguerite and a St Evêque and a St Nicholas from the 17th century.
In the cemetery, a war memorial stands in memory of those who died in the First World War. Just before you reach the hamlet of Grandes Vallées on the road from the main village of Laines-aux-bois, a hedge separates the road from the memorial to members of the LIBE-NORD resistance movement who were shot during the Second World War.
A fluted column topped with the cross of Lorraine stands on a pedestal and is surrounded by four men with emaciated bodies, their hands tied behind their backs standing tall to face their deadly fate.
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