Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples, Catholic chapel in Milly-la-Forêt, France

The Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples is a small rubble-stone chapel with a steeply pitched dark roof, standing among trees and low plantings outside the old town of Milly-la-Forêt. Thick rounded buttresses flank the corners of the front facade and divide the side walls into bays. A round-arched wooden door sits at the centre of the facade, with a narrow slit window above it and two small round-arched openings near the top gable; a round-arched window lights the left side wall.

The chapel was built in the twelfth century as part of a leper hospital that cared for patients seeking healing through prayer. The site combines medieval medical care with religious faith.

The chapel owes its name to Saint Blaise, a bishop and physician reputed to heal through medicinal plants called "simples". The small garden beside it still grows these herbs, and the bell of the old market hall is displayed there.

The chapel stands outside the old town of Milly-la-Forêt, along the D142 road toward Nemours, on the right bank of the École river. The medicinal garden beside it, with the iron cross and the old market bell, is reached from the same roadside entrance. The site is a classified monument since 2015, so access to the decorated interior may be limited during works.

Artist Jean Cocteau decorated the interior in 1959 with themes of medicinal herbs and resurrection symbols. Cocteau selected this chapel as his final resting place, leaving an artistic mark that remains visible today.