Montreuil Marsh Trail

Park in the car park opposite the Baude Community Centre.
Yellow markings

(S/E) Turn right onto Rue du Communal and follow it; pass Rue du Grand Bois on your left, then turn right at the Baude harbour car park and you’ll soon reach the junction with Rue du Marais.

(1) Turn right onto this street and follow it until you reach the Culée neighbourhood.

(2) Turn left onto Rue du Port d’Écoué and continue to the Rouchais junction.

(3) Turn right onto Rue des Épinettes and, after a 90° left-hand bend, you’ll come to the junction with Rue des Mottines.

(4) Head right until you reach the village of Fraigneau.

(5) Turn right onto a path. After a right-hand bend, you’ll reach a completely straight stretch. Continue in a straight line and, at a T-junction, you’ll find another straight path.

(6) Take this path to the left for a few hundred metres until you reach another junction.

(7) Turn 90° to the right onto another straight path. Cross a copse and come to the Étier des Marais d’Écoué at a footbridge.

(8) Cross the footbridge, then turn right to follow the embankment and reach the hamlet of Tapecul. Continue straight ahead along the edge of the embankment. Cross the bridge with railings, which allows you to stay on the embankment, then reach another footbridge.

(9) Take this footbridge to the right, then continue along the edge of the communal meadow to return to the car park on Rue du Communal (S/E).

The path is accessible all year round.
Do, however, watch out for holes dug by coypu.

Part of the path belongs to a land association and is therefore private. It is mainly used by farmers. Please respect the area and their work.

As you pass through the villages, take note of the architecture of the old buildings: longhouses, limestone walls, thatched roofs, and dry-stone walls.
There are information boards and a picnic table at the start of the walk.
Wildlife is abundant on this route, particularly along the embankment and in the communal area: grey herons, cattle egrets, storks, hares, roe deer, hoopoes, jays, etc., not to mention the coypu.
The flora also features plants and flowers specific to the marsh, found throughout the route: burdock, loosestrife, marshmallow, comfrey, teasel, etc.
Between points (8) and (9) on the embankment, there are a few remnants – low walls, stones, rose bushes and laurel trees – which bear witness to the presence of numerous dwellings or huts in the last century. The inhabitants, or ‘huttiers’, lived off hunting and fishing, including eels in this water-rich environment.