Circular of the Three Rivers in Saint-Génard

Park in front of the Saint-Génard cemetery.

(S/E) Take the road towards the village via Rue de l'Eglise. When you reach the Malvauderie neighbourhood, turn right and go up Chemin du Bois. The street continues along a path that slopes gently down towards Ruisseau des Coudrières.
Cross the river and continue along the path that climbs up to the plateau on the other side of the valley. This path leads to a farm track next to the Marais de Mont. Turn left onto Chemin du Marais and walk between the farm and the sheds.

(1) When you reach the road leading to Saint-Génard, take the path almost opposite.
After 200 metres, stay on the road and ignore the path that branches off to the left (dead end).
300 metres further on, take the path on the left in a slight bend. This path lined with box trees is a beautiful part of the route.

(2) The path leads to the Paizay-le-Tort road on the edge of the hamlet of Chancellé. Turn right and follow the road.

(3) At the first crossroads, turn left onto Rue des Robinières. At the next crossroads, turn right towards the hamlet of Alexandre, leaving Rue des Chaumes opposite.
When you reach the hamlet of Alexandre, turn left, passing over the Berlande, and go up Rue du Moulin à Vent.

(4) Immediately after the junction of Rue du Moulin à Vent with Impasse du Gué on the right, take the first path on the left, which runs some distance along the Berlande river.
The path leads to a road coming from Bel Air: take the farm track opposite. Go straight ahead at the next farm track junction and continue to the T-junction.

(5) Take the farm track known as "Chemin des Romains" on the left.
Go straight ahead at the next farm track junction.

(6) At the next junction with a road, turn left.

(7) At the crossroads, head towards the hamlet of Tournebride and the Puyberland Convent. In front of the first house on the right, take the path on the right that runs alongside Tournebride and overlooks the Tillou road. Follow this path to the Tillou road.

(8) When you reach the road, turn left and after thirty metres take the path on the left that follows the Berlande.
After 150 metres, cross the Berlande river via a small bridge and return to the Tillou road. This circular offers a beautiful view of an area developed on the banks of the Berlande.
At the road, turn left and then immediately right onto a tarmac road leading to a car park overlooking the Route de Tillou.
Take the path that leads to Chemin du Chétif Bois after a few metres. Turn right onto this path. At the end of the housing estate, continue along the farm track. Further on, leave the farm track that branches off to the right and continue straight ahead.

(9) At this triangular crossroads, go straight ahead and then immediately turn right onto Route de Lie. At the next crossroads, turn left towards Montabert.

(10) At this T-junction in front of a house, turn left towards Montabert, then right into Impasse des Lampes.
Shortly after the start of the cul-de-sac, take the road on the right, which immediately turns into a path between two houses.
This path descends towards the Marseillaise, which you cross via a bridge, before climbing back up towards the church of Saint-Génard and its cemetery.
When you reach the church car park, turn right to return to the starting point of the route (S/E).

Most of this route is on the Mellois plateau near Saint-Génard. Only the descents and ascents to cross the Coudrières and Marseillaise streams are quite steep on narrower but good quality paths.

(8) On the other side of the Route de Tillou is the wash house at the source of the Berlande.

This route follows the Rando en Deux-Sèvres certified route entitled "Les trois rivières" (The Three Rivers), available on the Deux-Sèvres Department's hiking website http://randoendeuxsevres.fr/index.php

The Romanesque church of Saint-Génard
The 12th-century church stands in the middle of a small cemetery.
The building has a simple layout: a single nave opens onto a straight-sided chancel ending in
a round apse. In this respect, it is characteristic of the small churches of the Mellois region.

The village of Saint-Génard
Houses occupy the valley floor, the slopes of the hillsides and the plateau.
The estates of the lordships (the Ousches, Bonneuil, Mont and Nossay estates, etc.), the priory of Saint-Génard and the convent of Puyberland determined this land use. Their owners built
dairy farms and mills for economic purposes. In the 17th century, there were eleven mills in the
municipality. Sources even attest to the existence of a flour mill in Chancelée as early as the end of the 10th century.
Economic activity linked to water led to the construction of mills at the bottom of the village, while activity linked to
land led to the construction of farms on the plateau.

The Puyberland Convent
Although it was dismantled during the Revolution, the 17th-century complex still looks impressive and retains its
coherence: surrounding several courtyards are the priory residence, the chaplain's residence, the chapel, the
refectory, the oven, the cellar and, further away, the dovecote. Chapels and churches in the Mellois region house
many reused elements from the priory: the rood screen served as a door to the chapel of the hospital in Melle,
part of the altarpiece can be found in the church of Tillou, and an architectural ensemble has been converted into an altarpiece for
the choir of the church of Saint-Vincent-la-Châtre.

Excavations of the priory: 2004 - 2005
"The first excavations revealed the remains of a necropolis and the remains of a building attributed to the
Benedictine priory of Saint-Génard. The necropolis appears to be divided into two areas. Near the current church,
there are burials in monolithic sarcophagi, whose trapezoidal shape gives a broad dating range
between the 7th and 10th centuries. Further away, burials took place mainly in the ground. All
ages are represented. Physical disparities were noted between the individuals buried in these two
areas, a probable indication of socio-economic differences. A second phase of burial is
detectable in this area, which could correspond to the end of the Middle Ages.
The priory is rectangular and carefully constructed. It has two rooms on the ground floor, as well as
latrines, and probably has one floor. It was built in the first half of the 16th century. Its
foundations rest partly on sarcophagi from the early Middle Ages, but also on the remains of an
earlier building, probably the priory mentioned in the 12th century.
This site presents a coherent ensemble rarely seen in the Mellois region, comprising a church (12th century),
priory buildings (12th? and 16th centuries) and three cemeteries (two from the Middle Ages and one from the modern era) in a small geographical area and covering a period from the 7th century to the present day.
Sylvie Gaiguand, archaeologist

This information is taken from the "Sur les pas du Chasseron" (In the footsteps of the Chasseron) information sheet published by the Syndicat Mixte du Pays Mellois (Mellois Region Joint Association).