Route details
Description
Your itinerary
Step 1: Departure
Enjoy your walk and thank you for respecting the area.
Step 2: Municipal port
The port of Saint-Georges-de-Rex is the only one not established on the edge of the hillside. The harbor and its access channel (Rimonboeuf channel), dug entirely in the limestone from 1850 to 1870 to approach the dock as close as possible to the village and the town with 150 ha of marshland, are connected to the Chail canal and the Grande Rigole de La Garette, towards Coulon, Marans or Niort. It is made up of a gently sloping grassy slipway, cut stone quays with two access points and a high masonry weir helping to maintain water in the port. The natural light bulb port is restored as part of the Major Works of the Marais Poitevin.
Step 3: Richebert washhouse
In the village, the Richebert wash house, whose water flooded the castle's moat, is a rectangular open-air basin fed by the stream of the same name via a reservoir. The small hold installed nearby served as a watering trough for livestock.
Step 4: Dovecote
It has been completely restored. Don't hesitate to come inside and enjoy a little freshness. There are 669 nests sculpted above your heads.
Step 5: Saint-Georges Church
The building was built in 1882 thanks to the sale of part of the municipal marsh and with the stones of the old priory church which was located at a place called Le Prieuré (conservation of the polychrome wooden tabernacle from the 1781th century (*) and the bell of 32). Its 24 meter high bell tower, struck by lightning on December 1945, 1948, was restored in 1999, then hit again by the storm of XNUMX.
Unusual: a hand-cranked winch whose chain was once stretched to the 2nd bay of the bell tower to dry the firefighters' leather hoses, without twisting them.
(*) Rehabilitated in 2017 thanks in part to the community heritage fund of the Niortais Urban Community.
Step 6: Reverend's Washhouse
In the village and on the path of the same name, the Révérend washhouse is a polygonal-shaped open-air basin fed by a spring and located on a property.
Step 7: Bread-making washhouse
Behind the church, in the street of the same name, the Panification washhouse, restored in 1993 as part of the Grands Travaux du Marais Poitevin, is fed by a spring and consists of an open-air basin of polygonal shape for adapt to the configuration of the site, a washerwomen's sidewalk sheltered by a lean-to roof (poplar truss and rafters, reed roofing and canal tiles called truss stems). Its name is due to an old dairy cooperative located nearby (use of milk in bread making to replace water, thus bringing more richness to the products, colors the crust while making it melting, contributes to the softness of the crumb and activates fermentation thanks to the sugars it contains).
Step 8: Grande Fontaine washhouse
The Grande Fontaine wash house, located in the village, in the eponymous street, is fed by a spring with a hand fountain and located along the road. Its open-air basin is quadrangular and has a cutaway to adapt to the plot and the road.