Route details
Description
Safety instructions – Wearing a helmet is strongly recommended. I drive on the right. I respect the highway code. I check the condition of my bike (brakes and lighting). I stay on the marked trails. I respect the marsh, a sensitive and classified site.
Your itinerary
Step 1
Its Grand Port, completely restored, was one of the main places of exchange between the plain and the Sèvre Niortaise valley. Two wooden cranes remind us that in the past the trunks of poplars, transported by water, were hoisted onto the bank. On the edge of the river port stands a 11th century house. (private property visible from the street). The XNUMX warehouses on the ground floor were used for storing goods in transit to Niort and Marans. In its extension, old farms line up along Chemin de la Garenne overlooking both the street and the Minet reach. A typical village of market garden habitat, Arçais is an ideal starting point for discovering the wet marshes on foot, by boat or by bike.
Step 2
Cited in 989, St-Georges-de-Rex is one of the oldest market gardening villages. Located in the plain, it dominates a small marsh and develops between a priory and a castle. Its restored port and wash houses provide a continuous link with the nearby marsh. Far from tourist flows, the St-Georges-de-Rex marsh is one of the most authentic, between islets of ash trees and wet meadows and remains one of the great flora and fauna sanctuaries of Green Venice.
Step 3
This market garden and bocage commune is located in the wild marsh. Lapwing derives from vana aqua meaning vain and vague water preventing any cultivation before the digging of canals in the 15000th century. Irleau is a contraction of Reau Island where the stakes of a prehistoric lakeside city or fortifications from a more recent era were unearthed. The last Saturday in July, the Water Market is organized at the Grand Port du Vanneau where the products of individuals and traders are sold to more than XNUMX visitors! This festive event reflects one of the most unique market garden traditions: the transport of men, animals and goods on the wet roads forming the Green Venice.