From La Couture to Aigonnay

Park at the entrance to the housing estate near the lakes at La Couture.

(S/E) Leave the car park via the path that starts at the eastern entrance to the housing estate in La Couture and runs along the north-western edge.
Continue to a crossroads of farm tracks.

(1) Turn right onto the path leading down towards the fields.
At the bottom of the descent, at a crossroads of farm tracks, turn left and continue straight on until you reach the D124 road.
Cross it carefully and continue opposite on a small road that leads to the hamlet of La Rivière.

The road descends a little further and crosses the Aigonnay.
Just before the stream, you will see a fountain with a lever on the left-hand side and the adjoining spring.
Continue on the left-hand side at the fork just after.
Continue to a path on the left a little further on.

(2) Walk to the Lavou d'Argnain (Arrignon wash house?) on your left, about two hundred metres away, and back.
On the way back, turn left onto the road and follow it to the nearby crossroads.
Turn left onto a small road, the Route de la Truite Anguille: follow it to the junction with a farm track on the right-hand side in a bend in the road.
Turn right onto the steeply ascending gravel path. During periods of heavy rain, this section of the path can turn into a stream. Follow it to the junction with the farm track known as Route de Trébot.

(3) At the junction, you will see the Trébot wash house.
Turn right and follow the Route de Trébot until you reach the Route de la Rivière.
When you get there, turn left until you reach the nearby crossroads. Continue straight ahead along Rue des Épinettes. This street turns into a farm track at the last houses.

Further on, the track reaches Route du Gros Chêne. Cross it carefully and continue straight ahead on the track that leads to a place called Le Breuil until you reach a T-junction of farm tracks.

(4) Turn left and go around the Manoir du Breuil site.
There arebeautiful views of the manor, with Poitou donkeys sometimes grazing in the pastures in front of the Logis.
A little further on, just after the driveway leading to the Logis du Breuil, you can see the top of a beautiful dovecote above the wall.
Continue straight ahead. The farm track turns into a small road after the Breuil cul-de-sac. Further on, the route comes to a crossroads with a road in a bend.

(5) Turn right and carefully follow the road to the junction with Chemin de l'Aubarrée.
Turn right onto Chemin de l'Aubarrée, immediately leaving the Parc road that branches off to the left. Walk alongside some beautiful properties.

At the next junction, at the corner of a house, turn right. Continue for about 200 metres and turn right again. Enjoy beautiful views of two ponds and beautiful properties as you pass.
Continue along the path to return to the road you took earlier to reach Chemin de l'Aubarrée.
Turn left onto the road to return to the crossroads.

(5) Continue right on Route des Lyzons, which leads to Aigonnay.
Go around a bend to the left and continue to the junction with a farm track on the right.

(6) Turn right onto this track and continue straight ahead until you reach the Magné road.
When you reach it, turn right and follow Route de Magné carefully.
Drive through the hamlet of Magné.

(7) Before the last house on the left, turn left onto Rue de la Truite Anguille, which continues as a farm track. At the corner, you will see the fountain and Mare de Magné.
Further on, walk alongside a pond surrounded by trees. Continue straight ahead and at the bottom of the descent, you will see the Fontouillet fountain on the left-hand side: it seems that the wash house has disappeared.
The farm track makes a sharp left turn and follows the course of the Aigonnay river.
Continue to a Y-shaped junction between the track and a road.

(8) Turn right onto the road, which quickly turns into a farm track and crosses the Aigonnay.
Further on, the farm track narrows and follows an intermittent stream before reaching the D124 road.
Note: On this path, you will pass through two gates in fences enclosing pastures. Be sure to close them behind you.
Turn left and continue to the triangular crossroads about a hundred metres away.

(9) Turn right onto the D304 road, known as the Route du Trot.

(10) Before the first house at the entrance to the village of La Couture, turn right onto the path that leads to the Mirandaine wash house.
Cross the stream to reach the Mirandaine wash house.
Return to the Route du Trot.

(10) Turn right onto the D304 road and cross La Couture until you reach the first farm track on the left at the end of a left-hand bend.
Turn left and follow this farm track until you rejoin the outward route.

(1) Turn right onto a farm track that approaches and runs alongside the Couture housing estate a little further on.
At its junction with the housing estate road, the route returns to the car park, which marks the end of this walk (S/E).

The car park is located at the eastern entrance to the housing estate in La Couture.

This hike takes place on varied terrain and requires suitable footwear. Parts of the route are on small roads, which are mostly tarmac farm tracks.

This hike is not marked. It is therefore advisable to follow the directions in the description and on the map, while also paying close attention to the landscape. The waypoints (with their GPS coordinates and distance from the starting point) are helpful for hikers who are new to the route.

Hike completed by the author on 6 March 2019.

Aigonnay
Aigonnay was a parish with a Protestant population. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Protestants gathered at the Château du Grand-Ry were victims of a dragonnade, on the orders of Intendant Foucault. Five were hanged and forty sent to the galleys. The château was demolished.
On 1 January 2019, it merged with Mougon-Thorigné and Sainte-Blandine to form the new commune of Aigondigné. Mougon is the capital of this new commune, which has four delegated communes.
Source: Wikipedia (excerpts)

Places and monuments
Logis du Breuil-Malicorne (listed)
History
The name Malicorne appeared around 1430 when Andrée de Varèze married Guy de Chourses, Lord of Malicorne, and took the name of Lady of Magné, Mons, Châteauneuf, du Breuil d'Aignonnay and Chantecaille. It is likely that Le Breuil-Malicorne was originally part of the fiefdom of Le Breuil d'Aigonnay. Many elements of the manor house, notably the stone hooded fireplaces and arched doors, may date from the second half of the 16th century. It is possible that, either by donation or inheritance, Le Breuil-Malicorne was given at this time to the youngest son of the owners of Le Breuil d'Aigonnay, Jacques Chalmot and Florence de Villiers. In any case, in 1698 the two estates were clearly separate, as Le Breuil-Malicorne is mentioned as a fiefdom worth 250 livres belonging to Messrs Simon de la Mourlonnière and des Anges, while the fiefdom of Le Breuil d'Aigonnay, worth 400 livres, belonged to Mr Chalmot. Between 1804 and 1840, the manor belonged to the Chevaleau de Boiragon family. On the 1819 cadastral map, it is marked as "a dairy farm".
Description
The various buildings are located around a polygonal courtyard, with the main building occupying the western side. This consists of a central section with three bays, a square upper floor and a raised roof, extended on either side by lower residential buildings. The solid sections of the central building's façades are dressed stone. The courtyard façade has retained the base of a watchtower. An oven and a barn are attached to the main building, the former to the north and in the same extension, the latter to the south and at right angles. Three doors in the outbuildings to the north-west are covered with semicircular arches. Two embrasures are still in place: one at the north entrance, in a wall of the laundry room, the other at the south-east passageway in a wall of the barn.
For more information:
Source: The Poitou-Charentes Heritage Inventory, file "The canton of Celles-sur-Belle:
1,620 heritage items studied"

¹ Le Lavou d'Argnain (Lavoir d'Arrignon?) in the locality of La Rivière

History: On 18 August 1868, Madame Marie, Radegonde, Anastasie, Caroline de Moussy, wife of Mr Henri Eloy, Marquis Aymer de La Chevalerie, residing at the Château de Pilloué, in the commune of Chiré, authorised the mayor of the commune to build a covered wash house on the meadow known as Rivière d'Aigonnay, for the use of the inhabitants of the commune.
Description: The wash house consists of a single concrete basin. It is located inside a small building made of limestone rubble with a long-pitched roof and interlocking tiles.

The Trébot wash house
This wash house consists of a rectangular masonry basin. It is accessed by a few small stone steps, next to which there is a cistern.
Source: Dracis79: The wash houses of Deux-Sèvres