It’s a day for trying new things…..thanks to Kerry Dywer who featured a WordPress challenge to embed and use a Google Maps image on the blog.
Those who know my lack of intuition, ability and patience with anything to do with computers – especially Ayak and Perpetua – prepare to sit down before you collapse….as I’ve actually managed to download a map!
To be fair, the instructions were very clear!
It’s nowhere near so elegant and professional as the map Kerry has on her blog post….but for me it’s a triumph and I can try to improve the technique for future posts.
What you have below…though I suggest that you click on the larger map facility as I made a horlicks of downloading a larger version….is a map of the country south of Saumur on the Loire and what I propose is to turn my back on the well trodden chateaux trail and wander upstream on the River Thouet, to look at what can be learned of French history in the hinterland.
The guidebooks are clear on what there is to see in Saumur….the chateau, of course, the town hall, the streets of the old town, the cavalry museum and the wonderful tank museum…..

I would add taking a tour on one of the traditional boats….a gabare or the smaller toue…

While for anyone keen on horses a trip to the stables of the Cadre Noir is a must…even if you’re not there at the right time for the performances.
You’ll find the Cadre Noir out in a suburb of Saumur…St. Hilaire St. Florent where on the marshy land of the then delta of the river Thouet where it joins the Loire, people were living before Saumur was founded.
So let’s follow the Thouet back into the quiet countryside of vines, woods and white villages which lie behind Saumur.
Leaving town on the straight road running through Bagneux – and visiting or not its well known dolmen in the grounds of a caff – at the top of the hill take a turning on the left which will turn into the D360 for Munet and…our target, Artannes sur Thouet which has one of the nicest videos of its commune that I have come across…do follow the link, it is a sheer joy.
This quiet little village bears signs of early human passage….
as witnessed by the neolithic standing stone and the two megalithic bridges tucked away in the quiet woods and streams around the village…..while its romanesque church dreams on among its trees.

You won’t find crowds of tourists at Artanne, just a living village in a beautiful setting.
As you leave it on the D360 you will see a turning to the right which would lead you to another world…to le Coudray Macouard perched on its hill….
The village, which grew within the fortifications of the old chateau, is a model of modern tourism….from it’s windvane exhibition
to the silk exhibition…everything from worm to fabric.
It is so self consciously charming that you begin to wonder if its inhabitants are real…or whether they are as ephemeral as the actors in the historical sound and light shows given in the season.
Instead of taking the turning to the right, we are going straight over the crossroads…as I’m taking you somewhere else.
To Bron. To see this.

This aerial view shows best why this lock is important, marking progress in controlling the level of water needed by boats travelling up and down stream.
The earliest locks were gaps left in solid dams, blocked by a gate which had to be raised to allow boats to pass. As can be imagined, this process let water through in a great rush…the boats shot forward on a waterfall and having to have a line attached for safety, while upstream the millers cursed as the levels lowered dramatically, disabling their mills.
This dam is an oval enclosure, with gates at each end…..limiting the water loss upstream and making the passage safer for the boats and boatmen. A step towards the modern lock which revolutionised fluvial transport.
There are three on the Thouet, dating certainly from the early years of the seventeenth century and possibly earlier…and, according to the local expert, not many elsewhere.
Taking the country road through the fields we will pass the chateau of la Salle, where there is another such lock and the little river port of Ste. Catherine, marking the limit of navigation, crossing the bridge to enter Montreuil Bellay under the walls and towers of its fairytale castle.

This is tourist country….wine tasting in the chateau’s barn, restaurants by the river, a camp site….but we’re not staying in the centre.
We’re going out on the road to Loudon to see the remains of a camp.
Not a Roman camp…but an internment camp.
Not ancient, but modern.
Jacques Sigot, a school teacher and local historian, came upon the remains while fossil hunting and his researches showed them to be part of the biggest internment camp for gypsies in wartime France.

This camp had originally been designated to keep Spanish Republicans, fleeing the revenge of Franco, under surveillance and then, when the Germans invaded, to house French POWs before shipping them to Germany and also to house British civilians rounded up in France.
Before the invasion, the French government had forbidden gypsies to travel, regarding them as a security risk, and the German authorities in their turn introduced a policy of internment.
Little was left of the camp when Monsieur Sigot came across it…and most of the remaining walls were destroyed – needlessly, he felt – so that the place and its purpose was scarcely remembered….a part of France’s wartime underbelly that was not meant to see the light of day.
Single handedly he has changed that by his tireless research and quest for publicity.
Chapeau Monsieur Sigot
Leaving the fortifications of Montreuil Bellay behind we are going to visit Saint Martin de Sanzay.
Not for the church, not for the chateaux and the old commanderie, but for the old flooded quarry…La Ballastiere.

Here is where you will find real France enjoying itself….the salle de fetes houses dances nearly every week end; the huge marquee can hold weddings, reunions…you name it; car rallies meet there; you can picnic by the waterside; you can fish…..it’s a slice of French life, and not on the tourist track.
Away again on the D158 and the D37, to the wonderfully named Ste. Verge and its church with the rare inscription on its walls

Then turn right on the side road towards Pompois and the Reserve Toarcien, conserving two old quarries where in 1849, the paleontologist Alcide d’Orbigny defined the stratotype of a layer dating back to the Jurassic system, the “Toarcien”. This level materializes a time interval comprised between 183 and 176 million years ago…..and to me is always associated with the ammonite fossils found all over the area.
Then you are in the sprawl of the suburbs of Thouars, a town which is a very hotch potch of history.
From changing hands between English and French in the Hundred Years War, to being taken by the Vendeens in the post revolutionary civil war, to becoming a railway town with a vast locomotive plant – and then losing heart and energy and declining into the stagnation in which it now finds itself it, the town could stand as an example of many in rural France….but it has so much to see, from the fortifications

to its churches

its chateau overlooking the river

not to speak of the railway buffs’ delight, the Eiffel viaduct

that this wander upstream on the river Thouet will end here…to encourage you to investigate Thouars over a glass of its very own aperitif…..Duhomard

Find out the story behind the name and I’ll stand you one in the Cafe des Arts. This could bankrupt me…
Brava! Chapeau, Mme Fly. For managing the map thingy(all by yourself, to boot!) and especially for such a lovely little outing.
Nose to stone here, but I’ll come back and do it again later.
Hey, you got the map in! Good for you. And I enjoyed the stroll through France, though I’d rather be there in person than viewing it over my laptop. đŸ™‚
It certainly isn’t elegant but I surprised myself by being able to do it at all.
Now for the blogroll….
I’m a bit like a five year old that’s managed to draw a house….
Helen, great post, and nice to see you got the map in as well. I know someone in Quebec with the surname Saumur. Love the photos, too!
It’s a bit primitive…but for me, where it comes to technology, primitive is an achievement!
Off the beaten track is always fun…
Oh well done for doing the map Helen. I am so impressed.I can’t even upload photos anymore on my blog straight from my pc without sending them somewhere else first (no doubt another Blogger change).
This is a great post..a wonderful tour..which made me stop and think that I haven’t been to France for more than 20 years. I can’t believe it’s so long, and it’s making me want to go back again.
I should be ashamed of myself for not marking roads….but I was so chuffed to get anything at all up on the screen!
Thouars is Sapristi Balthazar land isn’t it?
A lovely tour through a beautiful part of France. I love the hidden nooks and crannies that are in fact bijoux spots. Congrats on the map too!
Yes, it is! And Cafe de la Ville too who must be psychic as today’s post concerns Duhomard
A fabulous little off the beaten track tour. If it wasn’t too far away for CĂ©lestine I’d be stealing it for our clients đŸ™‚ I only knew about a few of the things you’ve mentioned (Saumur of course, and Thouars, but really only the internment camp in between).
You’ll have to ship her over on a trailer (yes, I know, heresy) and meet your clients at Saumur….
Well done Fly. Lovely wander through France with my morning cup of tea, thank you. I appreciate how long it takes and how much frustration is involved in getting this well thought out blog together.
Frustration! Yes…I wanted to put up a larger map but couldn’t scroll down far enough to copy the formula on the ‘customise’ option….
Looking forward to your new adventure!
Hi Helen
I think your map looks great. The instructions were a godsend, I would not have managed it without them. Some of the others who did that challenge managed very sophisticated stuff with pictures but mine came through as little green squares đŸ˜¦ Practice makes perfect.
I love all the picture in this post and the bridge reminds me of the Henry 4th bridge near Guitiniere – just about get a pony over it.
Does that drink actually have lobster in it? Or would that be telling…..
I must experiment….I was so pleased by being able to do it at all!
Yes, it would be telling…you have to earn your Duhomard at the Cafe des Arts!
A joke from 1922-26 etc. Lovely post thanks. Again it shows how we miss all the little corners of France and their stories even when living ‘just down the road’ plus.
I do try to read and understand all that Balthazar, S. writes but my Fr/Eng translations often leave a large hole.
Especially his lastest series of video clips! Did you see the one about water tasting? I loved that….his conclusion? Degoulasse!
Have a look at le cafe de la ville…same town but slightly different approach.
It helps to have informative friends! I was lucky that I had friends interested in all sorts of stuff who took me around a lot.
That’s one drink to score up, then….
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Thank you for the mention…yours looks like an interesting life!
Well done with the map đŸ™‚ This is an area that we really want to to visit, we drive past so often always in a hurry, it is on the list of to see. Especially for me a visit to Cadre Noir is at the top of the list. Keep well Diane
I know what you mean…there were places we used to shunt through on our way to Belgium and keep thinking…we must stop and look round…but just didn’t!
The Cadre Noir is well worth the trip in itself!
I did enjoy this, Helen, as DH and I always prefer to wander the back roads and visit places off the major tourist trails. We really must venture south of Normandy before long. đŸ™‚
You’re right about the village video – absoluteness charming, though I rapidly turned off the annoyingly insistent background music….:-)
Yes, it was somewhat unnecessary….but the pics were delightful.
Do let me know if you venture south of the Loire….
Good, found you. I read only ‘Listen to Miother’ so far, and this current, technologically highly advanced post; It is really sad, I will probably never again travel French back roads, my husband no longer feels able to do the tourist thing.
Good luck with WP; I have been thinking of changing over too, but I’m not sure I could manage it.
No, we shan’t be either so it’s good to remember the paths we took and enjoyed.
I did not think I would ever get to grips with WordPress…and it’s still winning by several furlongs….and it is certain that without Perpetua’s aid I would have fallen at the first fence, just as with Blogger I had so much help from Ayak.
I should have done better with the map…if I do any more trail posts I will attempt to mark the roads and whatnot….
What a delightful escapade. So enjoyable getting off the main trail and exploring those little havens of charm and tranquility. Perfect reading for a lazy winter afternoon. Thank you. And congratulations on your mastery of the map. đŸ™‚
Well, you’re the expert where it comes to travel in France!
Oh what a great tour, chapeau! I know it is quite a ways for us but think this summer we’ll have to have a ‘grand day out’ and follow it. Brill!
And there is so much to see just off that trail….let me know!
Oh I wish I’d spent more time exploring France when we lived nearer. Thanks for taking me there on line.
Just how I feel about Turkey when I read your blog…a constant muttering of ‘well how did we miss that…’
Great tour! Good pics, and sunshine also!
Yes, a bit of sunshine is welcome given conditions your end at the moment….
It’s a lovely area…
This is really very clever, and delightful, of course. That wartime underbelly stuff is fascinating, and I am constantly surprised at how little digging has to be done for it to surface. I came across a haunting commemorative plaque in the Bastide area of Carcassonne, last summer, apologising for Vichy, and all the crimes committed under the name of France during those years.
My road in Caunes is named after one of the maquis…..and a goats path through our garden led into the Black Mountains, and to a maquis hideout. It’s all there, just about within memory and reach. Jx
People of that era know….when the resistance museum in Thouars was first set up its aim was to record the testimony of people who had knowledge of the period…not to accuse, but simply to record while the memories were still clear and available.
I found it both moving and immensely informative…not just about the events described but for its subtext of background culture.
Since the museum has been taken over by local government, with a ‘properly qualified’ curator, all that is played down and there is just a load of the usual guff about ‘big themes’ of liberty, etc tied to the school curriculum to attract school visits to tick the pedagogic box….
Fascinating, especially about the locks. I had always thought they had been invented in their current form.
I can remember reading Rolt on British canals…but don’t remember whether he went into the history or not…it was a long time ago. I was certainly numb and vague about their development.