France Guide
Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast
The Marais Poitevin
The Marais Poitevin is a strange, lazy landscape of fens and meadows, shielded by poplar trees and crisscrossed by an elaborate system of canals, dykes and slow-flowing rivers. Recently declared a regional park, it is known as "La Venise Verte" – the Green Venice – and indeed, farmers in this area frequently travel through the marshes in flat-bottomed punts as their fields lack dry-land access. The area has proved a big hit with tourists in recent years, but away from the main villages peace and tranquility still abound. Whether walking or cycling, it's best to stick to the marked paths, as shortcuts invariably end in fields surrounded by water.
Ten kilometres west of Coulon you arrive at the village of ARÇAIS, with a simple nineteenth-century church and a substantial port which is testimony to the earlier role of the canals as a serious means of agricultural transportation. Nowadays, it is another spot from which to hire canoes or punts. Beyond Arçais, there's practically no traffic, just meadows and cows. At the seaward end of the marsh – the area south of LUÇON – the landscape changes, becoming all straight lines and open fields of wheat and sunflowers. The villages cap low mounds that were once islands.