| | A PRESENTATION
OF THE MARAIS POITEVIN.Click buttons for complete pages with photos.In western France, located below the Loire river and extending over 2 regions, the waterways of the MARAIS POITEVIN (Poitou fens, also called the Green Venice) occupies what was a very large depression with a surface of well over 80.000 hectares.
Its western edge, from the city of Longeville down to Esnandes forms a very gracious curve 34 kilometers long facing the Atlantic ocean and called the "Baie de l'Aiguillon" (Bay of l'Aiguillon)...........
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One must consider several distinct areas in the Marais Poitevin. First, the "Marais Mouilles" , or wet marshes, remain liable to flooding and are located in the eastern sector of the Marais Poitevin. Here the waterways are supplied with the waters from several neighbouring major rivers such as : the Sevre Niortaise, the Vendee and the Lay, but also from less important streams, called l'Autize, la Guirande, la Courance and the Mignon.
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The recently built Polders called "prises" have allowed to gain land by mean of a system of dikes. Most of them were constructed during a period extending from the XVIII to the XX centuries. Without these dikes, separating the Marais from the nearby Atlantic ocean, salted waters could rise up to the village of IRLEAU, some 10 kilometers away from the city of NIORT.
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Finally, in the so-called L'Aiguillon Bay, we find "Mizotte" or schorre, a salted meadow created by drying sludge turning into soil, and a muddy area called "vasière or slikke"................
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However, the Marais Poitevin can be considered as a new land. All along the passed centuries it has constantly evolved first with the everchanging action of mother Nature, then under the slow domestication by its inhabitants, true pionner of the waters. |
