The Gabarots Trail to Juvardeil

Park in the car park opposite the town hall.

(S/E) Leave the car park by heading left to cross the Place de la Mairie and enter Rue Neuve. At the right-hand bend in Rue Neuve, continue straight ahead into Rue de l’Hormeau. You’ll see a beautiful property on the left, then another on the right after Ruelle du Port aux Vignerons.
Turn right just after the corner of the property and head towards the Sarthe.

(1) At the crossroads, note an information sign for the route indicating the actual starting point. Turn right to head towards the banks of the Sarthe through the gardens.
At the corner of Ruelle du Port aux Vignerons, continue along the riverside path that runs alongside the River Sarthe.
Carry on in this way until you reach the junction with Ruelle Louis Martin (the second alleyway).

(2) Carry on straight ahead along the path, which continues to follow the banks of the Sarthe. Further on, the path turns right onto a road that joins Rue du Port Joret.
When you reach it, turn left and follow Rue du Port Joret, then turn off onto a diagonal street leading to a road running parallel to the River Sarthe and Rue du Port Joret. Follow this road to the left for about fifty metres before turning right onto a gravel farm track that runs diagonally. There’s a lovely view of La Cadière on the left.
Shortly afterwards, the track turns southwards, veering to the right. Continue to the quarry and its large pond, which the track runs alongside on the western side.

(3) At the junction, turn right onto the road towards La Ganerie. The road winds its way and joins the D108.
Turn right and follow the D108 with care. You’ll reach Mon Idée after passing Lévèquerie on your left.

(4) Turn left onto the grassy, gravelly track leading to La Fassière. Continue along the gently ascending track. At the next crossroads, head right to join a road.
Turn left towards the hamlet of Les Cellières, where you’ll see a château on your right. (See the ‘During the walk’ section.)
In the hamlet, take in the stone houses. At the crossroads, turn left again onto a street which becomes a path after the last houses. You’ll see a well on the left-hand side at the right-angled bend in the road.
Continue along the stony path which passes two isolated houses before heading into the woods.

(5) Just after entering the woods, at a junction with a track on the right, turn right and continue along the edge of the woods on your right. About five hundred metres further on, turn right onto a better-maintained farm track. The track heads north towards a road.
Just before reaching this road, turn sharply left onto a track heading south-west, which leads to a junction with five roads and tracks known as Laroche-Planterose.

(6) Turn right to follow the road, which initially runs alongside a housing estate on the left-hand side. After a bend to the right, turn left, run alongside the property on the left-hand side and turn left again onto a track heading west.
A little further on, the track arrives near the hamlet of Planterose. Go round it on the right until you reach a T-junction.
Turn right and continue straight on until you reach an X-shaped crossroads at the hamlet of Le Bas Marais on the left (you’ll see a large farm to the west just before the crossroads).

(7) Ignore the path on the right and the one on the left, and carry on straight ahead. Further on, after a left-then-right turn, carefully cross a road and continue along the path heading due north.
A little further on, the track runs alongside a large plot of walnut trees on the right-hand side. The track gives way to a road.
Just past the shed, turn right onto a farm track, then onto a small shaded path, and continue to La Gourie.

(8) Turn right to follow a^PR® path, pass alongside the Fellière estate and continue straight ahead along a grassy path until you reach a road. Turn left and carefully follow the road for barely a hundred metres, then turn right onto a gently sloping path that rejoins the X-shaped crossroads you passed earlier.

(7) Leave the two paths you took earlier and turn left onto the^PR® path heading towards La Gandonnière, to the east. Continue along the road that has replaced the path, passing La Petite Gandonnière on your right.

(9) Just as the road bends to the left in front of the large farm at Sainte-Anne, take the track on the right which goes round the south side of the farm.
The track arrives at a place called Le Bas Lucé. Turn right onto the road leading towards La Cornillerie.

(10) When you reach the road known as Rue de la Vieille Cure, follow it down the gentle slope to the left (at an acute angle).
Just as the road begins to climb again, turn right onto a grassy path between two hedges. Follow it to La Lande Judas, just before the D108 road.

(11) At the junction with the D108, there is a wayside cross (in need of restoration). Turn left and follow the D108 road with care, passing the hamlet of La Croix (a solitary house), then turn right onto the first grassy track approximately three hundred and fifty metres after the solitary house. The path begins about thirty metres before Rue de la Poitevinière.
Follow it straight on until it joins Rue du Gravier. Turn left for about fifty metres, then right into Ruelle Louis Martin. Follow this until you reach the banks of the Sarthe.

(2) Turn left and follow the banks of the Sarthe along the same path you took on the way there.
When you reach Ruelle du Port aux Vignerons, turn left, follow it, then turn left again into Rue de l’Hourmeau. Continue straight on until you reach Rue Neuve, where you’ll come back to Place de la Mairie and the car park (S/E).

The car park is opposite the Town Hall (where you’ll find the Les Amandiers bar and tobacconist’s)
Access: head north out of Angers on the D52. At Tiercé, turn left onto the D74 and, at Cheffes, turn right onto the D108 towards Juvardeil.

This walk across varied terrain requires suitable footwear.

This walk presents no real difficulty in terms of navigation as it is signposted in yellow. It follows the^GRP® des Basses vallées Angevines from the start to the point (8), then a^PR® path. It then joins the “Sentier des Gabarots” route, the guide to which is published by Anjou-Tourisme and the Anjou Bleu Tourist Office. In addition, it is advisable to follow the directions in the route description and on the map, whilst paying close attention to the landscape. The waypoints (with their GPS coordinates and the distance from the starting point) serve as aids for walkers exploring the route for the first time.

Alternative route
On reaching the point (7), turn right onto the Promenade and Hiking Trail (^PR®) and follow the route directly towards La Gandonnière, without taking the circular loop of the route towards La Gourie. The route is then 13.5 km long

Juvardeil
At the northern end of the Basses Vallées Angevines, nestled harmoniously along the River Sarthe, lies Juvardeil, the village
birthplace of the Marquis de Bonchamps and Jean-Louis Pesch (author of *Sylvain et Sylvette*) dates back more than a thousand years.
The village’s development was closely linked to this toll river. In the 16th century, a lock
allowed barges to cross the causeways. Along with Nantes and Montjean, Juvardeil was the main centre for the construction of large Loire barges, which contributed to the village’s prosperity. These wooden barges, over 30 metres long, were used to transport grain, stone, hemp and wine to the Loire

The river at Juvardeil in the early 19th century
Whilst this map, dating back nearly two hundred years, shows that the layout of the village of Juvardeil was very similar to that of today, it does, however, highlight that the River Sarthe looked very different at that time from what we see now.
Juvardeil still had its own weir. A lock gate allowed barges to pass through, and three wheat mills plus a watermill were in operation, situated on the weir’s causeway (it was not until 1850 that locks replaced the lock gates and Juvardeil lost its weir and its mill).
As for the Sarthe, opposite La Cadière, it resembled a lake dotted with islands and islets rather than a mere river. A true paradise for boating, which, alas, has now disappeared.
A living entity capable of a thousand changes, the river has, over the centuries, been shaped by the people who have tamed it and harnessed it for their own purposes. Its course is now tame and controlled. It has lost its many branches and its wild character, and seems to have fallen asleep. It stirs gently each winter to flood the meadows of the Basses Vallées Angevines, and, dangerously, every ten or twenty years to inundate villages and other inhabited areas that lie too close to its banks.

Notre-Dame Church
The parish church of Notre-Dame, in the Gothic style, was built between 1857 and 1860 by the architects Delestre and de Coutailloux, featuring a single nave and stained-glass windows.
It replaced the old church, which was demolished in 1855 as it was deemed too small and in poor condition.
It is the town’s most striking and unmissable landmark, thanks to its location and its tall bell tower overlooking the River Sarthe.
The bell tower of the present church, damaged by lightning, had to be repaired in 1894.
The church houses two items listed as classified movable property in the inventory of historic monuments:
· The silver box for the Holy Oils, dating from 1779,
· The metal reliquary dating from the 18th century.

Buildings in rural areas
Village and hamlets: a relatively rare urban form in the rural landscape, linked to very ancient settlement patterns.

The village of Cellières (former parish)
The village of Cellières was established in the 16th century, centred around a priory and a castle situated halfway up the slope on the right bank of the Sarthe, overlooking the valley from a slight elevation. The houses are simple and unadorned in design, interwoven with numerous outbuildings of varying sizes.
The priory stands out with its imposing silhouette, devoid of surrounding vegetation. The château, on the other hand, is very discreet thanks to dense surrounding vegetation: a double row of trees marking the entrance, and a remarkable yew tree by the façade facing the Sarthe. The château’s farmhouse boasts a distinctive architectural style: tall, understated structures delineating a square courtyard enclosed by a ‘porch gate’.
The built complex at Cellières presents a pleasing and balanced silhouette, created by the interplay of volumes and set off by the landscape and vegetation. The château and the servants’ quarters in the courtyard at Cellières are listed in the inventory of historic monuments.

La Bérodière – Les Aulnaies
These very old hamlets (16th–17th centuries) are situated on the banks of the Sarthe. They feature a linear layout on either side of a narrow street and often display unadorned architecture, occasionally enlivened by a manor house (e.g. Les Aulnaies).
In these hamlets, many houses have been restored. There are a few new builds (in the hamlet of Les Aulnaies). Today, they are nestled amidst dense vegetation, a mix of hedgerows and poplar groves.

Les Petites Landes
The Petites Landes area is not, strictly speaking, a cohesive, historic hamlet. Indeed, the juxtaposition of buildings from different periods in this area has led to a cluster of houses forming a loose and fragmented urban structure.
There are also very simple, old dwellings alongside much more recent developments (dating from around 1970). On the hedgerow-covered plateau, this settlement does not form a distinct silhouette.

Scattered settlement: This form of scattered settlement corresponds to an agricultural economy based on family-run farms; there are no villages, but rather isolated dwellings situated amongst farm buildings, at the heart of a network of hedgerows that frames them and often enhances their appeal. The municipal area is characterised by two very distinct periods of construction and investment in the rural environment.

Simple, traditional dwellings
The buildings are modest in scale and small in size. The use of local materials (plastered sandstone and slate) ensures that these old farmhouses have a low visual impact, whilst the rather sombre colour palette closely resembles the hue of the earth.
The farm buildings do not follow any characteristic layout but are instead arranged in a haphazard manner, depending on the farm’s location and size. The juxtaposition of new storage buildings (such as sheds) considerably enhances the impact of these farms, which serve as key landmarks within the hedgerow landscape.

A distinctive type of settlement: 19th-century farms (circa 1850)
These farmsteads are imposing in scale, both in terms of the main dwellings and the outbuildings, and are organised according to geometric urban layouts in an L- or U-shape. The typical architecture of this period, constructed from rendered sandstone, features decorative brickwork on the façades, openings and string courses. There are numerous openings, often elaborately designed, notably featuring many rounded shapes emphasised by the bricks.
These farmsteads, situated mainly in the northern area (an undulating, hedgerow-lined plateau), serve as important landmarks and provide high-quality visual focal points.

The large estates of Juvardeil
La Grande Maison
In the old village centre, the Grande Maison occupies a prominent position on the axis of the Grande Rue. One of its façades, extended by the park’s boundary wall, runs alongside Rue de l’Hormeau and guides the route towards the river. Its rather understated structure is set amidst the dense vegetation of the park, acting as a green focal point within the urban fabric.

The Logis de la Poitevinière
In the town centre (near the cemetery), the Logis de la Poitevinière boasts fine architecture: a small turret at the corner of an L-shaped building. The property is surrounded by a wall and set off by a park featuring characteristic plant species (notably magnolias). The chapel dedicated to the Annunciation, founded on 30 August 1536, has been converted into a dwelling. In 1857, whilst the church at Juvardeil was under construction, parish services were held there.
This was the home of Charles de Bonchamps during the first six years of his childhood.

The Gentilhommière de la Cadière
Built in the 16th century in the hamlet of Port Joret, the country house overlooks the River Sarthe and the floodplains.
It features intricate architecture (tuffeau stone and slate) with a turret and numerous windows and doors on the façades.
A grove of pine trees marks the entrance to the estate.

La Bodinière
The Château de la Bodinière belonged to François de Chaume and was sold in 1681; it subsequently belonged to René d’Etriché. The property, situated near the village, is enclosed by a high boundary wall and a dense wooded area. The entrance is marked by tuffeau stone piers and a wrought-iron gate (in poor condition). The building itself is simple in design, constructed of tuffeau stone and slate. The roof is enlivened by ornate dormer windows and a brick chimney. This property owes its impact on the landscape and its role as a landmark to its vast wooded grounds.
Source: the municipality’s official website and Anjou-tourisme