Route du Moulin à Ver

Park in the car park at the Salle des Fêtes in Ver.

Blue signposting

(S/E) Set off from the Ver Village Hall and walk alongside the cemetery. Turn right, then straight away left between the houses to reach La Clérotière. From there, follow the small path leading to the D236.

(1) Turn left, then take the first road on the right towards La Basserie.

(2) Go straight on and take the path. After about 150 metres, turn left and walk alongside the woodland to reach the D145. Follow the road to the right.

(3) Take the first track on the right before the village of Bailly. Follow this track straight on until you reach La Pinsonnerie. At this point, continue along the road.

(4) At the junction, carry on straight ahead towards La Hautmonière, then continue along the main road.

(5) At the next junction, carry on straight on towards Village Camus, where a small road gives way to a footpath.

(6) Keep left towards Grand Valencey.

(7) Follow the main road to reach Petit Valencey. Here, turn right to continue along the main road.

(8) Before reaching Petite Planche and L’Oiselière, take the road on the right (D541), pass Les Douity and La Bulnière, and return to the junction you passed on the way there.

(5) Turn left and cross La Hautmonière again.

(4) Leave the route you have already taken and turn right towards Dizeau.

(9) Cross the D145 and carry on straight ahead to join a footpath. Walk for about 200 metres and, at the first junction, take the path on the right. At the second junction, follow the path on the left towards La Hecquardière and carry on straight ahead, following the River Airou. You’ll come to a final junction; carry on straight ahead towards the Moulin d’Airou.

(10) At the Moulin d’Airou, carry straight on along the track towards the Pavé d’Airou on the D33.

(11) Once on this road, turn left and carry on straight ahead to reach the main street of the village of Ver. Once in the village, take the street on the left to go round the church and the cemetery, then turn right to reach the car park at the Salle des Fêtes (S/E).

Difficulty: none.

Public toilets.
Picnic area.
Water point in the cemetery.

Interesting fact

The freshwater pearl mussel: a freshwater mollusc, the ‘mulette’ is known for its exceptional lifespan (over a century), yet is on the brink of extinction despite being protected (under the European Life+ programme; fewer than ten sites in France). This mussel also has the distinctive feature of producing pearls suitable for jewellery (roughly one in every thousand produces a pearl). A few can be found scattered along the lower reaches of the Airou, a river classified as a ‘Natura 2000’ site and the main tributary of the Sienne. This stretch of river lies within the municipalities of Ver, Le Mesnil-Amand and Le Mesnil-Rogues

The church

This 13th-century complex is crowned by a massive square bell tower topped with a gable roof (two slopes). Of particular note are a remarkable altar frontal, a 14th-century Virgin and Child classified as a listed object under the Historic Monuments Act, and a magnificent bas-relief from the same period depicting twelve figures.

The Moulin d’Airou

Just upstream from the Moulin de Ver, at a place known as ‘le Moulin d’Airou’, lies the confluence of the Sienne and the Airou; the course of the Airou is designated as a Natura 2000 site and is the main tributary for salmon spawning grounds.

The mill (privately owned), built several centuries ago to harness water power, no longer served any economic purpose, and the weir associated with the mill, 1.70 m high, was in a poor state of repair. Fish passage structures had been installed in the 1990s. At the same time, the sluice gates at the Ver mill weir were opened in 1993, but even when raised, fish migration remained sporadic and dependent on water levels.

In agreement with the owner, the weir was ‘levelled’ in 2010. Its stone rubble was reused to create flood-redirection groynes on the right bank. The works were accompanied by maintenance of the riparian woodland upstream and the restoration of a nearby pond to replace the fire brigade’s pumping access point from the former reservoir in the event of a fire

The Ver bee

The village of La Bulnière on the D541.
A bee can store 500,000 grains of pollen on just one of its hind legs and visit 250 flowers in a single hour. For humans to produce one kilo of honey, the bee colony travels approximately … 40,000 km. As a champion of pollination, it plays a major role in the reproduction of 70 out of every 100 plant species. 35 per cent of our food resources depend on insects, and 80 per cent of these depend on bees.