Day 3 : SAINT-MAIXENT-L'ECOLE - LA ROCHELLE (116 on 326 km)
Saint-Maixent is famous for its military School founded in 1881 and for its Roman monuments, above all the abbey church founded in the Vth century and restored in the XVIIth century.
The screen of poplars edging the river shelters le Logis Saint-Martin, a great stone house from the XVIIth century.
You will leave the upper Val de Sèvre to visit a region of Poitou marked by the Huguenots’ presence. Like Sauvigné, the villages own two places of worship and often church and temple face each other.
After having crossed the forest of l’Hermitain you will discover a major place of the Poitevin Protestantism. Two temples transformed in exhibition centre recall the history of this community, the time of clandestine life and the repression which followed the “ Révocation de l’Edit de Nantes”.
In the distance the imposing church tower from the Augustins abbey of Celles-sur-Belles can be seen in the distance.
La Garette is a typical village, with its low houses lining up along the street on one side and along the water on other side.
In Coulon you will experience the wet Marsh by boarding a boat for a trip through the maze of the green Venise.
You will meet picturesque villages all along the itinerary: Le Vanneau, Arçais, Damvix with a un port shrouded in the greenery.
You will leave the Nortaise Sèvre to cross the canal of the Vieille Autise. In Maillé you will leave the wet Marsh after having seen the aqueduct which permits the Vix canal from the dried Marsh to cross the canal of the Jeune Autise from the wet Marsh.
Travelling along the Marans canal you will reach La Rochelle.
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