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 respect the marsh, a sensitive and classified site. We therefore invite you to respect nature: avoid picking flowers and plants, do not leave any trash behind, respect inhabited places.
Your itinerary
Step 1: Saint-Cyr d'Arçais Church
Built to the south of the current commune, at a place called Butte de la Vieille Eglise, the first sanctuary, isolated (no trace of nearby dwellings), called the Grande Eglise, was undoubtedly destroyed during the Wars of Religion . From 1855 to 1862, the parish church was rebuilt in the other direction (turning around) in the neo-Gothic style. Unusual are the hooks on the northern exterior cladding of Saint-Cyr, located high up and which were once used to dry the firefighters' leather hoses, without twisting them.
Step 2: Tadpole Ash
The pollarded ash has been present en masse in the Marais Poitevin since the 19th century. At this time, major work to drain the wet marsh was undertaken. The ash was preferred to many other tree species because it has the advantage of being very tolerant of water, it helps consolidate banks, heat habitats, and serves as a refuge for many species. animals.
Keep your eyes peeled during your walks, you will find them lined up along the conches, offering magnificent photographic shots.
Step 3: The Vendée village of Damvix
This small town with multiple footbridges allowing you to cross the narrow conches of the Marais Poitevin, is a former fishing village, which has now become a town full of charm, alive all year round. An ideal place for outdoor activities, it is the start of numerous hiking trails and boat trips. You can also ride there in a carriage or on horseback. The flat terrain is ideal for cycling and you will enjoy walking past the typical houses of the Marais Poitevin on the banks of the Sèvre.
It is also the only place in the Marais that offers cruises on a restaurant boat.
Passing through Damvix, don't forget to stroll around its port and take a detour to its Saint-Guy church.
Step 4: The Bazoin locks
These locks constitute a remarkable hydraulic node. It is the convergence point of the main waterways of the Marais Poitevin where Deux-Sèvres, Charente-Maritime and Vendée come together. Several locks form this exceptional hydraulic node and ingenious system allowing water management in the Marais. You will find in Bazoin the only pier allowing the junction between Charente-Maritime and the wet marsh (Venise Verte).
Step 5: The Ornithological Park “Birds of the Marais Poitevin”
It is a natural space of 8 ha, in the heart of the wild marsh, in which more than 70 species of birds from the Marais Poitevin and domestic animals created in Poitou are presented. To help you recognize them, information panels and introductory ornithology modules are available along the discovery trail. Also learn to recognize the wild trees and plants of the wet marsh. At the end of the visit, a film will take you over the landscapes of the Marais Poitevin and you will discover the birds of this region in their intimacy. A labyrinth awaits you punctuated with educational panels on migration.
Step 6: The Port of Montfaucon
Monfaucon, an islet inhabited since the Celtic era (discovery of bronze axes), was in the Middle Ages the seat of the lordship of the canons of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand de Poitiers. Its main artery is Rue de la Venise Verte and the Montfaucon pier corresponds to the old municipal port partly developed during the Major Works of the Marais Poitevin. The village still retains a small rural heritage (bread oven, ponne, boulite, queue de bac, etc.).
Step 7: Saint-Hilaire-la-Palud, capital of the Marais sauvage
Located in the heart of the Wild Marsh, an emblematic landscape of Green Venice, St-Hilaire-La-Palud gives you access to more than 100 km of waterways and white paths. From the Latin palus meaning marsh, the Paludéens maintain the know-how and traditions through the numerous summer activities provided by volunteers. The street villages of Rivière and Montfaucon bear witness to the flourishing river trade at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. The hamlets of Névoire keep the memory of the brick and tile making activity, once very present. The Marais Poitevin Ornithological Bird Park is now the spearhead of tourism that respects nature and people.
Step 8: Arçais and its large port
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 9: The Logis d'Arçais
This Grand Logis was enlarged in the 1960th century (private residence visible from the street). Its first owner was responsible for planting the first poplar in the Marais Poitevin. The eleven stores on the ground floor were used for the storage of goods (wine, wood, fish) in transit to Niort and Marans, then rented until around XNUMX to farmers who stored their equipment necessary for exploiting the marsh there.