A new edition of the Angelica Festival à Bessines has been announced! This is the opportunity to come and (re)discover angelica, the largest known aromatic plant in the world.
The date
- Sunday May 18, 2025
Angelica Festival Bessines
The feast of the Angelica is a tradition à Bessines. This is an opportunity for the people of Bessin to perpetuate the importance of the “Marquise of Angels”, emblematic plant of Poitevin marsh. For this new edition, many activities are offered and organized by the Bessines festival committee:
- Marché de producteurs (products based on Angelica and quality local products), local crafts…
- Musical animations
- Entertainment for children
- Horse-drawn carriage rides
- Local catering and refreshments on the spot
- Free parking near the place
The Angélique Niort-Marais Poitevin Promotion Association
THEassociation for the promotion of Angélique Niort-Marais Poitevin has the mission of highlight the angelic through regional events, professional and tourist communications. The players in this sector (producers, confectioners, food artisans and tourism professionals) invite you to join them in this process.
Angelica, what is it?
Niort and Poitevin marsh are the cradle of the largest known aromatic plant in the world: “angelica”. According to tradition, the Archangel Raphael (“God heals us” in Hebrew) introduced man to the plant with its many medicinal properties in the 10th century.
From head to toe, everything is good in “the angelica archangelica” : seeds, stems, leaves and roots Today, the umbellifera is transformed to make liqueur, candied stems, sculpted subjects, cream, jam, candies and chocolates. In 2006, candied angelica was qualified and approved by the Regional Institute of Agro-Food Quality (IRQUA). It is used in the composition of Suze, Pernod, Chartreuse, Bénédictine… and flavors gin and vodka. It is also used in cosmetology, perfumery and phytosanitary products.
It is tonic, stomachic, sudorific, antispasmodic, carminative, purgative, expectorant, emmenagogue, digestive and… anti-plague! It treats tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, small pox, rheumatism, cellulite, colic, gout, ulcers, anemia, impotence, bites and toothache. After the terrible plague of 1603, “the herb of angels” is grown on a large scale in Niort, with its feet in the water and its head in the sun.
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