Route ‘Au fil de la Touvre’

Car park at Place Saint-Jacques and bus stop near the roundabout, at the end of Avenue du Président Wilson.

(S/E) Head towards the roundabout and take Rue Camille Pelletan. At Place du Champ de Mars, turn left onto Rue Poitevin, which runs alongside the car park, and continue to the Town Hall.

(1) Turn slightly right, cross the Town Hall gardens and continue along Rue Raspail. Pass the small square and its junctions. A few dozen metres further on, you’ll see a cul-de-sac on your right, Chemin du Bac du Chien, which will be our route back.

(2) Carry on straight ahead, passing Rue Laennec on your left, go past the “Madame Curie” bus stop and head up to the Site de la Porte.

(3) Turn left into the Site de la Porte. Walk past the media library and then the health centre to reach the sports ground, and go round it on the right. Head down towards Chemin de la Messe and follow it for about 300 m.

(4) Head up the hill to the right through the arboretum, then come back down onto the Chemin de la Messe. Continue to the right until you reach the Route des Riffauds.

(5) Follow it to the right. At the junction, ignore Rue des Agriers and Rue de la Fontaine des Riffauds and turn right to continue along Rue des Riffauds as far as the old school and Place des Riffauds.

(6) Take a look at the old school and the chapel on the square. Then return to the junction just before the school. Take the Chemin de Touvre to the right of the school. Ignore all other roads and carry on until you reach the gravel track, which you follow for about 2 km until you reach the Route de la Combe du Cormier. Take this road to the right until you reach the Stop sign.

(7) Turn left at the junction with the Route des Sources. Follow it for 50 m and turn immediately into the Impasse du Peu. Continue along the track for about 1 km. After a right-hand bend at the entrance to the forest, you’ll reach a junction.

(8) At the junction, take the path to the right and follow the Touvre. Pass the Rue des Serres, which branches off to the right, and head gently uphill towards the Route des Sources.

(9) Follow it to the left along the footpath and pass the “Madame Curie” bus stop.

(2) Turn left onto Rue du Bac du Chien, then right. Cross the stream, continue along Rue de Verdun, keeping to the right. Carry on left onto Rue Armand Jean, pass the church (you may wish to take a detour along Rue de l’Abreuvoir), and continue along Rue de la Vergnade until the junction with Rue du Maréchal Joffre.

(10) Turn left onto the narrow Impasse de la Passerelle and cross the river. At the end of the Relette footbridge, follow the tarmac path; before passing under the railway line, turn right onto Rue Pierre de Coubertin until you reach the ‘Stop’ sign and the railway line.

(11) Do not cross the railway line; instead, continue to the right onto Rue Joliot Curie. Follow this road until you reach the roundabout. Turn right to return to the starting point (S/E).

Information:
Pays d’Angoulême Tourist Office 05 45 95 16 84

(S/E) In 1750, the Marquis de Montalembert, an enterprising and ingenious military officer, converted two mills on the River Touvre into a cannon foundry for the Royal Navy. The cannons, transported by barges along the Charente, were used to arm the ships at the Rochefort naval base. The forge became a foundry in 1776, a name it retained until 1964.
In the 19th century, during the era of industrialisation, the foundry expanded and its workforce grew. With the arrival of the railway (1875), the transport of cannons by river was abandoned in favour of rail transport.
The second half of the 19th century was marked by the first social advances, driven by the foundry’s employees, who went on to play an important political role through their trade union involvement as well as through their municipal offices.
Today, Naval Group has sites spread across the country and internationally. The site at Ruelle-sur-Touvre specialises in particular in the design and development of systems and equipment for the Royal Navy.

The former post office
The former post office is situated on the corner of Rue Camille-Pelletan and Avenue du Président-Wilson. The preliminary design presented by Roger Baleix and approved by the municipal council, the project’s client, on 2 September 1927 demonstrated a commitment to innovation. The reinforced concrete design was in fact preferred to the masonry option.
The building comprised a public hall, staff offices, a courtyard, a bicycle shed and accommodation for the postmaster. It was inaugurated on 2 March 1930 and purchased by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1931. The building retained its original function until 1987. It has housed a chemist’s since 1991.
Massive in appearance yet resolutely modern, with a flat roof accentuated by imposing cornices and doors set in broken corners, the building features prominent floral ornamentation by the Angoumois-based sculptor Léon Déziré: banners, friezes and spandrels featuring motifs of intertwined stylised flowers are very common in Art Deco ornamentation.

(3) The Porte site:
The foundry’s first apprentices’ school was housed at several different locations within the arsenal grounds. In 1946, the Navy then acquired 2.74 ha on the Porte site to establish ‘The Apprentice School’, which would later become ‘The Technical Training School’, until 1984, when it closed. The majority of the apprentices trained went on to join the foundry’s workforce.
Today, the site is home to the media library, the health centre and premises for local organisations. Also located in this area are the City Stade and the Colette Besson sports complex, which hosts numerous clubs (tennis, archery, fitness, karate, judo, skiing and cycling).

(10) The Relette footbridge:
The construction of this footbridge took some time. First proposed as early as 1888 to facilitate the journey of employees working at the Ruelle forge or the Magnac paper mill who lived in the neighbouring town, it was not finally completed until August 1902.