Sentier Détours N°1 – Mornac-sur-Seudre
This Detours Trail allows you to discover the western route of the Chenal de Téger through the commune of Mornac.
Mornac-sur-Seudre has not always been an oyster port. In the 12th century, the banks of the Seudre were covered with salt marshes. White Liman salt was produced there. At the time, Saintonge was considered the salt granary of Europe.
This route follows the pedestrian paths, dikes that protected these production sites from high tides. It gives pride of place to the discovery of local fauna (heron, egret, etc.) and flora (santonine, samphire, etc.).
Route details
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TO SEE On the route
L’Aigrette II – Seudre Croisières
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Your itinerary
Step 1: Departure from the port
Take rue des Basses Amarres to exit the town via rue de l'Aide.
Turn right before the green path to go on a loop which leads back to the other end of the green path.
The port of Mornac has long experienced strong fishing and traffic activity. During trading between the ports of La Rochelle and Bordeaux, boats experienced great difficulties going down through the Maumusson sluice, between the island of Oléron and the continent. The merchants will use Mornac as a relay port. Thus the boats entered Seudre as far as Mornac where the goods were unloaded onto ox carts which were then transported to Royan where they were reloaded on the barges to go back down to Bordeaux.
Step 2: The Mornac channel
The Mornac channel or the acheneau (as they say here) allows sailors to bring their boats up to the port. This was not an easy thing in headwinds. Hauling was carried out from the dikes by animal but also human traction. We must not forget that at the time the acheneau was more curved; thus the South-East bend was straightened in the 1880s by the hand of man. There is still today the bend of the Noroît where you had to hold firm if you wanted to return to the port in a northeast wind. It is when we have seen the Acheneau at both high tide and low tide that we understand that here, we live to the rhythm of the tides.
Step 3: The salt worker’s cabin
It was rebuilt in raw wood, covered with reeds and opened to the east. It allowed you to store your tools and shelter from bad weather. On the bumps, the salt workers
cultivated cereals and vegetables.
Step 4: View of the bell tower, the origins of Mornac as a stronghold
Its strategic location made Mornac a stronghold since the Middle Ages. The town, built on a Cretaceous limestone mound, has a fortified castle with a keep of the same type as the Broue tower (1622th century). These two dungeons communicated to warn of a possible invasion. In XNUMX, Soubise, leader of the Protestants, destroyed the castle keep. The fortifications were then dismantled and the ditches were filled in to become gardens.
Mornac is made up of a village and two suburbs outside the fortifications: that of the rope factory and that of the priory.