Gazeau Mill, following the Sèvre Nantaise from St-Hilaire-de-Mortagne

Start in the village of Saint-Hilaire-de-Mortagne. Park in the square by Saint-Hilaire Church.

(S/E) Head up Rue de la Paix (D92) and turn right after the last house towards the hamlets of La Métairie and La Gontrie, which are both dairy farms.
Keep going straight on.

(1) Carry on straight ahead, taking the path that descends into the woods. At the bottom of the path, in the hamlet of Bouchet, leave the houses on your left and turn right. Continue along the Sèvre Nantaise. Carry on straight ahead towards Le Port, keep to the left and pass in front of a house. Continue until you reach a right-angle bend in the road.

(2) Leave the road and continue through the woods on the Chemin du Port, a very pleasant, shaded path which, towards the end, runs alongside an industrial wasteland: the Fleuriais site.

(3) Turn off and head up to the right. Continue along this small path until you come out onto a road called Chemin de Saint-Martin. Head up this road; there is a footpath on the left-hand side of the road.

(4) Turn left at the three green gates, which provide a passage between the stone walls. Walk down this path, known as the Terrasses de Sèvre. At the bottom of the descent, take the small footpath on the right.

(5) Cross Rue Nationale carefully and walk straight ahead down Rue Romaine.
At the Stop sign, turn right, then immediately right again after the houses. Continue along the banks of the Sèvre Nantaise

(6) Turn right up Chemin des Mulets, a path that climbs just after the large house. The sign pointing the way to this path is on the wall ahead of us but is barely visible beneath the vegetation.
Walk past the medieval castle and turn immediately left, taking the small passageway after the low stone wall to go down the narrow path.

(7) At the car park of the Laurier Vert visitor centre, turn off and head up to the right. Once at the top of the road, head down to the left onto the road, Chemin du Thouet, and continue until you reach a Y-junction.

(8) Turn left towards the sewage treatment plant on your left and continue along this road, which very quickly becomes a path – a rather pleasant path that runs alongside the Sèvre Nantaise with a few houses, quickly making you forget the sewage treatment plant.
Continue to the Moulin de Gazeau.

(9) Turn left after the huge picnic area and just before the mill, cross the Sèvre Nantaise and carry on, staying on the paths as close as possible to the Sèvre Nantaise, which is on your left.

(10) Ignore the option to cross the river and continue along the path, which moves away from it for a short while before rejoining it a little further on, just before the bridge.

(11) Go up to the left onto the bridge and enter Mortagne-sur-Sèvre (D960ter). Turn right, after the bridge and the car park, onto the dead-end road Chemin du Fleuriais. Continue. Return to the Fleuriais site and thus the route of the outward journey, the Chemin du Port.

(3) Follow the route of the outward journey in the opposite direction.

(2) At the hamlet of La Varenne, take the path up to the left immediately after the house. Continue and, once past the hamlet of La Gontrie, rejoin the route taken on the way there.

(1) Turn left, cross the hamlet of La Métairie, and head towards Rue de la Paix and the car park on Place de l’Église Saint-Hilaire (S/E).

The Fleuriais site is now an industrial wasteland in the Sèvre Nantaise catchment area.
This site has been home to a variety of craft and industrial activities. Originally a paper mill, it was successively a flour mill, a spinning mill, a laundry, and finally a tannery.

Gazeau Mill.