HAZELNUT TRAIL

Departure from the car park of the Place du Champ de Foire.

At the corner of Place du Champ-de-Foire and Place Saint-Jean, house from 1537, in Flamboyant Gothic style, with flames framing the windows and heads of figures on lintel.

Place du Champ de Foire corresponded to the lower courtyard of the castle of the Viscounts of Thouars

It dates from 1825. Its inverted hull roof is covered with scale tiles. It was built on the site of the Saint-Jean church demolished in 1821.

The "Low Prisons" are the remains of the ramparts of the castle of the Viscounts of Thouars, founders of the city.

1801th century Romanesque church, listed as a historical monument. It presents a remarkable architectural unity. It was used as a slaughterhouse by soldiers of the Republican army during the Vendée wars. It was returned to worship after the Concordat of XNUMX.

Stream which has its source a little upstream and which flows into the Yon near the Coux quarry.

A short round trip allows you to clearly see the house with towers, main buildings and farmyard (private building and still inhabited). It is mentioned from the 1993th century but the building as it is visible today dates from the XNUMXth century. Confiscated as "national property", it was then bought by the Payraudeau family (one of its most illustrious members was the naturalist who created the bird collection that became an ornithological museum). It has been listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments since XNUMX.

The National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) has located, according to their calculations, the center of Vendée in the municipality of La Chaize-le-Vicomte at this precise location.

Note some old houses. Inscription on the lintel of a window on the right: "La Mayzon du Gué".