Arçais – Découverte d’un village maraichin – Parcours audioguidé sur l'application mobile
Route details
Description
Great discovery and don't forget that you are not alone in taking the trails you are going to follow. We therefore invite you to respect the environment and the inhabitants and leave no trace of your passage.
This route was carried out by the Tourist Office in partnership with elected officials from the commune of Arçais and in collaboration with the mediation service of the Marais Poitevin Regional Natural Park.
Photo credits: PNR Marais Poitevin
Screenwriting and texts: Lauriane Angibaud and Amandine Louveau, Niort Marais Poitevin Tourisme
Voice: Mathilde Cornuau, Niort Marais Poitevin Tourism
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Your itinerary
Step 1
Marais Poitevin: Human development began in the Middle Ages. 10000 years ago, 1 maritime gulf: the Gulf of Pictons and 4500 years ago the ocean still advanced as far as Niort, Arçais was on the side of a cliff. Arçais: Appears in the Middle Ages: The monks govern the land which has become silted marsh which they will drain to make it healthier and gain more arable land. Here, the wet marsh: Many small navigation channels allow you to move from dry area to dry area. Label Petite Cité de Caractère: Obtained in relation to the hydraulic network: nearly 40 km of canals crisscross the town. Until the beginning of the 3th century. : main route to the ocean. Church: 1860rd church in the village (the others have disappeared). Construction: 1, neo-Gothic style. East facade: the iron bars allowed the firefighters' hoses to dry. Below, XNUMX leveling mark.
Step 2
The building still bears its inscription “Post – telegraph – telephone”!
The building was returned by the postal services in 2012. At that time, the inscription should have been removed, but the mayor at the time, Joël Bourchenin, and the residents mobilized to keep it in order to preserve the history of their village. The buildings on the square have been rehabilitated and they welcome local creators and artisans.
Step 3
1 of the most typical crossroads. On the right, the water pump: Drinking water in each house is a rather recent thing, arriving at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Mogettes roller next to the pump: roller with holes pulled by 1 horse on 1 round clay platform in order to beat the cereals or the famous white beans without damaging them. Bouteroues: blocks of stone at street corners pushing back the wheels of carts which cut the path drawn by the harnessed horse. A major filming location, Arçais has hosted several filmings: In 1968, “L'inspecteur Cadavre”, 1 episode of the series “Commissaire Maigret” with Jean Richard. In 2019, 1 German series dealing with the Second World War, “Das Boots”. The house on the left bears the inscription “Café au bon coin”. This building served as a filming location and the decorators painted this frontage for the occasion.
Step 4
Typical dwellings. If they are organized in a similar way to the other communes of the marsh, in Arçais, they have a particularity.
The constructions of the past were made with stones from the surrounding area, the houses have these very particular alignments of small rubble stones: These were recovered from the quarries at the level of the plain. For the cut stones (the large rectilinear blocks around the windows), they had to be brought from Benet, 15km away. They were transported by ro-ro trucks, large carts pulled by horses. And here humidity is omnipresent, it was necessary to insulate the houses well... These, contrary to modern trend, were systematically protected by a plaster.
Step 5
Right facade of the building: Walls could be erected by wedging cow bones between rubble stones at the same height to hang climbing plants or trellises. This system could also be used to dry fishing nets when they were made of hemp, a more fragile material which damaged more quickly if attached to harder nails.
Step 6
Be careful, the descent of this alley is very steep.
Before going down, around you, you have 1 building with 1 part of wooden cladding, it's 1 barn. Among the materials commonly used in the marsh for roofing, there were reeds: a good insulator, it is a very flammable material, even if fires were ultimately rare. The barns were around 1 to 9 m high and stored crops of mogettes, beans or hay.
The alleys are omnipresent, they inevitably lead to water. They were about 1m wide and less steep than today. They allowed people who had 30 house that did not touch the water to access the conche. Formerly public, many have today been privatized by adjoining houses and the passage from the street to the water is more complicated and rare.
Turn on your left.
Step 7
At the time when nautical activity was at its peak, there was no vegetation like today on the towpaths. There had to be no obstacles on the side to allow the boats to be dragged by cows or horses. From the first developments, the ash trees were cut down, the ditches cleaned, the meadows mowed: no room for nature. As you walk, listen and listen to the muffled sounds of the surrounding nature. Also look on the other bank, you will see vegetable gardens. It was common for each maraichin to have their own vegetable garden accessible by boat. Mogettes were an important staple in the diet. It was a dishonor not to have a maintained plot. It had to be clean!
Step 8
On the other bank, 1 old Maraichine farm accessible only by boat.
The current marsh takes its plan from 1860, the start of drying campaigns ordered by Napoleon III to complete the medieval developments. Water was at the heart of life: transport of animals, postman, milkman... Everyone traveled by boat. The practice of traditional fishing, mainly eel, made it possible to feed his household and the surplus was sold. Today, eel fishing, as well as glass eel fishing, is highly regulated.
The boats could be made of different materials: wood, iron or cement (less expensive). Exploiting the marsh land is difficult and many farmers tend to leave it to cultivate easier and safer areas. Around 1960, footbridges were built in order to improve accessibility to the plots and facilitate work.
Step 9
Looking at the properties on the left, we better understand the organization of the village and the farms. The buildings were located close to the water to have quick access to the conches and to be able to go to the fields. The residential houses were at the very top of the plots, then, further down, there was the barn near the water, the stable. Each house had its own access to the water and the pier.
The wooden posts at the water's edge with numbers written on them correspond to the moorings of the houses that own them. People who lived higher up in the village came down the alleyways. The entire organization of the village was based on water. In the gardens, cow nativity scenes with rings date from the original houses. Today, homes have changed a lot, but these nativity scenes are used as flower pots or as supports for walls.
Step 10
Behind the surrounding wall, on the left, is the old park of the house. This imposing residence was built in two stages: In 2, General Philippe Auguste Ducrocq, owner of the land, had most of the house and its outbuildings built. In 1820, he expanded the building to create an independent pavilion. Looking at the facade, the separation can be seen thanks to the windows which are not all at the same distance. Below, the reserves constitute the foundations of the building.
Most were made available to farmers who stored equipment and goods there.
The others belonged to the house and had direct access to it via an internal staircase. The doorless gate underneath housed a water pump which was used by farmers. Originally manual, an electric motor was installed at the beginning of the 20th century.
Step 11
The port was a central place in the village.
Here, farmers came to drop off their goods. From there, the marsh was quickly accessible by boat. The metal studs at the top of the port were more numerous and all had a number that corresponded to a particular property. There are much fewer plots today because as owners changed, the notarial registers gradually lost traces of correspondence between properties and pier locations. The cranes present at the port are reproductions. The timber trade was important. Once arrived at the port, the wood pulled behind the boats from the marsh was hoisted using these cranes. Hanging by a chain, the trunks were raised by arm strength. The crane then had to be turned so that the wood was loaded onto the vehicle which transported it to the sawmill.
Step 12
Before crossing the road, check traffic and be careful. A fortified castle was built during the 13th century below the church and was sold in 1873. Today, no traces of the castle itself remain. Certain dwellings on the right, after the intersection towards the church square, correspond to the old outbuildings of the disappeared castle.
Step 13
Originally, the building which today houses the Tourist Office was a bakery. Transformed into a dilapidated cinema which was no longer used, it had lost its roof. Renovated, it was transformed into a tourist reception area following the visit of President François Mitterrand in 1992. This is the start of the “major works” to begin the “renaissance of the Marais Poitevin”. Indeed, since the floods of 1983, the population was gradually leaving and abandoning the territory which was falling into neglect and oblivion.
Don't hesitate to open the door of the Tourist Office, you will find other old images, traditional objects, as well as a team of advisors always ready to provide you with information to deepen your discovery of the marsh!