Circular walk from Saint-Romans-lès-Melle to Négressauve and Mortefond

(S/E) Leave the car park near the Romanesque church of Saint-Romans-lès-Melle and take the Font Maye farm track heading north-west. Along this track, after about three hundred metres, you will see a fountain in an open area with a picnic table. The fountain is built into the ground: you reach it by going down a few steps. At the Y-junction, take the path on the right, which curves sharply to the right.

(1) A short detour to the right takes you to the Font Maye washhouse fountain, just a few dozen metres away. This spot also has two picnic tables (one made of stone, one of wood). Take the slightly uphill path that enters a small wood heading north. Continue straight on until you reach a road. Turn right and then immediately left onto a farm track. Just after passing under a high-voltage power line, the path joins a road; follow this road straight on.

(2) At this ‘Y’-shaped junction, turn right and pass through the hamlet of La Brousse, with its beautiful traditional houses. Carry on straight ahead until you reach a junction of roads and a farm track. Turn left and immediately take the farm track diagonally to the right.

The track joins a road at right angles (Rue de Brioutel) as you approach the village of Négressauve. Turn right and carry on straight ahead.

(3) Take the lane on the left after the Chemin du Rulot. At the next right-angled bend to the left, take a narrow lane to the right of the buildings (there’s a lovely old house opposite). The lane leads onto the Chemin du Rulot, which you follow to the right (northwards) until you reach the Route de la Vée de Melle.

(4) Turn left and continue straight on along this road until you reach a four-way junction.

(5) Turn right onto the road heading towards La Ronze and the D948. At a right-hand bend, take the grassy farm track branching off to the left towards the north-west. Further on, the track joins a road. Turn left and follow this road towards Mortefond. This is Rue de la Chaume aux Chiens.

(6) At the entrance to Mortefond, turn right onto the Chemin des Platanes. In the right-angled bend to the left, there is a Protestant family cemetery with a grave bearing symbolic markings. There is another one a little further on.
Carry on straight ahead along the Chemin des Platanes, which winds its way between the houses, runs behind the cemetery and joins a road a little further on.

(7) Turn right onto this quiet little road which runs past the base of the Doua water tower. Continue straight on, passing the Cellois motocross track, until you reach a junction just before the one with the D948, the main road from Melle to Niort.

(8) Turn right onto an uphill road leading to the concrete components factory, which can be seen in the distance on the Melle plateau. Please note: you must be very careful on this short stretch, as lorries may be using it to travel from the D948 to the factory. The road turns into a service track as you pass to the left of the factory. Continue straight on, crossing two small roads. The service track passes between two wind turbines.

(9) At this crossroads of tracks, turn right towards the south-west. After turning, you’ll see two wind turbines on the Mont Jarron plain on your left, then a third on your right. Continue along the farm track until you reach a small road.

(10) Turn left and, at the next junction about fifty metres further on, take the farm track on the right heading south-west. Carry on straight ahead. Pass under the high-voltage power line, cross the road and continue straight ahead along the farm track. This eventually leads onto a road which you follow straight ahead, slightly downhill, to a junction.

(11) Cross the D101 road with care and take the road opposite, which leads slightly uphill. At the next junction, turn right into Rue de la Garenne. Shortly after the right-angled bend to the left, take the Venelle aux Rats on the right, which leads steeply downhill.

At the end of Venelle aux Rats, turn left onto Chemin des Lavandières, which runs alongside the large grassy square in front of the church at Saint-Romans-lès-Melle. The Chemin des Lavandières leads back to the car park, which marks the end of this walk. Take the opportunity to admire the washhouse fountain in Saint-Romans-lès-Melle, situated near the car park (S/E).

The car park is situated near the Romanesque church of Saint-Romans-lès-Melle.

This walk across varied terrain requires suitable footwear.

The route is not signposted but does not present any particular difficulties in terms of finding your way.

History of Saint-Romans-lès-Melle
Before being assigned to the royal seat of Melle, Saint-Romans-lès-Melle formed part of the castellany of Lusignan and fell under its jurisdiction. The village was subject to the election of Saint-Maixent. In 1103, on his return from the Crusade, William IX, Count of Poitiers, granted the abbot of Saint-Maixent the dues owed to him in Saint-Romans-lès-Melle.
Geoffroy Thébaud, one of its earliest known lords, died before 1366. He was succeeded by Aimery Rechin, his son-in-law; the de Prahec family (around 1363); the de Poix family — under whom, in honour of Jeanne de Poix, the castle was elevated to the status of a barony by Henry IV; the Girard family (from 1594); the Fouquet de la Varenne family; and the Brandelis de Champagne family. In 1732, Marie de Champagne married César Gabriel de Choiseul-Praslin, Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, a cousin of Louis XV’s minister, who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and later as Minister for the Navy.

At the start of the Revolution, a certain Antoine-César de Choiseul-Praslin (1756–1808) was elected in 1789 as a substitute delegate of the nobility to the Estates General for the seneschalship of Maine. He took his seat there on 20 August, took the civic oath, was promoted to field marshal in 1791, did not emigrate, but was arrested as a suspect in 1793, imprisoned and released on 9 Thermidor. Bonaparte appointed him a senator and made him a Commander of the Legion of Honour.

He sold his estate at Saint-Romans to Pierre Andrault, former president of the district of Melle and one of the wealthiest landowners (his fortune was estimated at over a million in property), who served as a deputy for the Deux-Sèvres from November 1820 to May 1822. After him, his daughter, Madame Belleroche, Madame Main de Boissière and Madame Rabany were the owners of the Saint-Romans estate, which is still in the hands of their descendants today.
Elevated to the status of a barony by Henry IV in 1607, the estate of Saint-Romans was of considerable importance.
In 1698, the income from the seigneury amounted to 8,000 livres, double that of the fiefs of Melzear and Saint-Léger. Built in the 15th century, the manor house at Saint-Romans has undergone various alterations over the years. One of its towers was demolished, but the other, on the garden side, has been preserved. It is topped with battlements, some of which have been rebuilt. The coat of arms of the de Poix family, which once surmounted the door of the demolished tower, was reused when an additional wing was added to the manor house. It features a monumental fireplace bearing the arms of the same family.
For a long time, as many as eight or even nine major annual fairs were held in Saint-Romans, which had market halls donated in the early 19th century by the Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, the last lord of the commune. Numerous transactions involving mules and hinnies took place there.
A church was inaugurated in 1846 and served the Protestant communities of Brioux, Périgné, Mazières-sur-Béronne and Paizay-le-Tort.

Places and Monuments
12th-century Romanesque church: a recent square bell tower capable of holding four bells; a Romanesque apse with a pointed semi-circular vault; a choir with a pointed barrel vault; a modernised nave; the coat of arms of the de Poix family.
Residential buildings.
The washhouse at the Font Maye fountain

Notable figures associated with the village
Hervé Joulain, world-renowned horn player. First principal horn of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Marek Janowski from the age of 20, Hervé Joulain performed at a very early age under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Armin Jordan, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti and Carlo Maria Giulini. Ten years later, he was promoted to the same post with Charles Dutoit’s Orchestre national de France. He has now joined Lorin Maazel as principal horn with the Filarmonica Toscanini in Parma.
Hervé Joulain is also a member of the Paris Bastille Wind Octet, with whom he regularly tours abroad. He has already recorded around twenty CDs.
His career as a chamber musician has also led him to perform with artists such as Paul Tortelier, Yuri Bashmet, Pierre Amoyal, Vadim Repine, Michel Dalberto, Boris Berezovsky, Boris Belkin, Pinchas Zukerman, Natalia Gutman and Gidon Kremer, both in France and around the world.
Having taught at the CNSMD in Paris, Hervé Joulain now devotes his time to giving masterclasses throughout France, as well as in Brazil, the Czech Republic, Canada and Finland.