Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - les dragons, Niort

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

Les dragons, Niort, summer 2024

 

Les Dragons, Niort

 

Keeping on the theme of dragons, in a similar legend to La Grand’Goule in Poitiers, our local town of Niort also has dragon tale to tell, although the slaying of this beast was rather more gruesome than the crucifix waving of Saint Radegonde in Poitiers. 

 

Once upon a time, roughly at the end of the 17^th century, the marshlands of the Marais Poitevin and the Sèvres Niortais river were home to a gigantic, winged amphibious serpent who terrorised and carried off the Niortais people. Along came a young soldier, who had been condemned to death for desertion, but promised to kill the monster in return for a pardon. Safely protected by his suit of armour, that included a glass visor, and armed with a long spear and dagger, with a quick and agile movement, he fatally stabbed the beast in the throat. The soldier removed his visor in triumph, when the dragon, in its dying breath, spat venom and mortally poisoned him.

A smaller dragon, Niort

 

Since 1992, four bronze dragon sculptures by Jacques Hondelatte have marked the gateway to the town centre, reminding everyone who visits Niort of the beast that once lived here. They are iconic and we have countless photos of us taken over the last twenty years, posed alongside their fanged heads that rise magnificently from the pavement. 

Same cyclist, same Brompton, same dragon, different year (2019)

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - La Grand'Goule

La Grand'Goule, Poitiers

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

 

La Grand’Goule

 

You can’t really have a series of blogs about myths and legends without talking about dragons and luckily for me, the Poitou-Charentes isn’t short of a dragon tail, or two.

 

When Ed moved to Poitiers for university in 2018, it gave us the opportunity to explore the city, that until then hadn’t been much more than an airport or station pick-up or drop-off zone for us. As he’s recently moved flats, we’ve been up and down a lot more than normal, and this has reignited my love for Poitiers and its rich history.

River Clain, Poitiers

 

Today’s tale is set in the watery depths of the Clain river that runs through Poitiers, and is the story of a fearsome dragon, La Grand’Goule and Sainte Radegonde, wife of Clotaire I, King of the Francs in the 6^th Century, and founder of a monastery that used to sit on the site of the current Sainte-Croix Museum. The dragon was said to have used the river and a network of underground tunnels to reach the caves of the monastery, primarily to feast on the nuns. In a perfect ‘good triumphs over evil’ story, it was Sainte Radegonde who freed Poitiers from the beast, saving her nuns, and in time would become the patron saint of the city. Where prayers alone had failed to stop La Grand’Goule, when it was confronted by Radegonde, her crucifix and holy water, the beast suffered a nasty end. 

La Grand'Goule depicted in Lusignan

 

La Grand’Goule was gone, but not forgotten. From the 15^th to 19^th Centuries, an effigy of the dragon was paraded through Poitiers during the three days leading up to Ascension Day. Children would throw small cakes at it and prayers for a good harvest would be said. If you visit the Sainte-Croix Museum you can see the wooden sculpture they used, that is over three hundred years old, or look up at the water tower in the Dolmen residential area where she is painted proudly on high. Stone carvings can also be found on a number of local churches.

 

Having cycled along the Clain river on a misty Christmas Day afternoon, looking over to the cliffs and caves, it was easy to imagine them home to a beast of a dragon with a penchant for snacking on nuns.

 

Here are a few other blogs about things to enjoy in Poitiers:

Loving being a tourist in Poitiers 

Poitiers summer fun 

Poitiers insolite 

  

Public and school holidays in France, 2025

Public holidays in France, 2025

Public and school holidays in France, 2025

Happy New Year to you all, it was a hectic end to 2024 for us, so I hope 2025 is a healthy and less challenging one for everyone.

 

Having only had the opportunities for day trips last year, we are busy browsing the internet and guidebooks for ideas and itineraries for our cycling escapades this year. January is the perfect time to start planning your French travel adventures and to make the most of them, it’s always useful to know when the public and school holidays fall. Things have changed a lot in the twenty years since we’ve been living here, but in many areas of rural France, shops are still likely to be either closed or only open in the mornings on public holidays and school holiday traffic can be a nightmare.

 

Here is my guide to all the French public holidays, school holidays and other notable dates, plus how they are celebrated here in France, for 2025. This year, you can save the above image and keep it to hand for reference during the year.

 

Public Holidays in France 2025

1^st January, New Year’s Day, jour de l’an 

20^th April, Easter Sunday, Pâques 

21^st April, Easter Monday, lundi de Pâques (note there is no Good Friday holiday in France unless you live in Alsace or Moselle areas)

1^st May, Fête du Travail (celebrated with lily of the valley)

8^th May, Victory in Europe Day, Victoire 1945 

29^th May, Ascension Day, Ascension (note schools will have an extra day off on Friday 30^th May for the bridge (pont)) 

9^th June, Pentecost Monday, lundi de Pentecôte

14^th July, Fête Nationale 

15^th August, Assumption Day, Assomption 

1^st November, All Saint's Day, Toussaint

11^th November, Armistice Day, Armistice 1918 

25^th December, Christmas Day, Jour de Noël (note there is no Boxing Day holiday in France on 26^th unless you live in Alsace or Moselle areas)

 

Faire le pont

Except for the holidays linked to Easter: Easter Monday, Ascension Day and Pentecost Monday, the above dates are the same every year and the holiday is always observed on the actual date rather than being moved to the nearest Monday (as the UK would do). 

 

Public holidays can therefore fall on weekends; to make up for this it is not uncommon for people to faire le pont (make a bridge) if a holiday falls on a Thursday (Ascension Day) or a Tuesday, by taking off the Friday or Monday to give themselves a four-day weekend. This leave will be part of their annual holiday entitlement, or the hours will need to be made up, so while most businesses will be open on bridge days, some staff shortages can be expected. 

 

School Holidays 

The school holiday dates in France are split into three zones and most of the holidays are staggered so not everyone is trying to hit the ski slopes or beaches at the same time, although be prepared for extra traffic on the roads on all Saturdays during the school holidays, or better still avoid driving on these days.

 

https://www.vacances-scolaires-gouv.com

Here are the dates for 2025:

The winter holiday will be from 8^th February to 9^th March. 

Zone B gets the first two weeks, Zone C the middle two and Zone A the last two.

 

The spring holiday will be from 5^th April to 4^th May. 

Zone B gets the first two weeks, Zone C the middle two and Zone A the last two weeks.

 

Thanks to Ascension Day falling on 29^th May, everyone will be off for a four-day long weekend from Thursday 29^th May to Sunday 1^st June, with Friday being a bridge day.

 

The summer holiday for all zones will be from 5^th July until 1^st September.

 

The October holiday for all zones will be from 18^th October to 2^nd November.

 

The Christmas holiday for all zones will be from 20^th December to 4^th January 2026.

 

Other dates to note and celebrate in France

6^th January, Epiphany, celebrated in France with a Galette des Rois (see here).

8^th January, winter sales begin, soldes d’hiver. Sales are regulated in France and the winter sales will run from 8^th January to 4^th February. 

 

2^nd February Candlemas day, Chandeleur, celebrated in France with pancakes (see here).

 

4^th March, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras when carnival time begins in France and pancakes, or beignets (similar to doughnuts) are eaten.

30^th March, clocks spring forward an hour to Central European Summer Time.

 

1^st April, Poisson d’avril celebrated in France with sticky fish (see here).

13^th April, Palm Sunday, Rameaux a day where our local boulangeries bake something different (see here).

 

25^th May, Mother’s Day, fêtes des mères.

27^th May, National Resistance Day, journée nationale de la Résistance.

30^th May, Neighbours’ Day, fêtes des voisins often celebrated in France with shared meals.

 

15^th June, Father’s Day, fêtes des pères.

21^st June, world music day, fête de la musique, celebrated with free concerts in towns and villages all over France.

25^th June, summer sales begin, soldes d’été, and will run until 22^nd July.

 

5^th July to 27^th July, Le Tour de France, with a planned depart in Lille, and with a finish back on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. This year, unusually, there will be no overseas stages.

 

26^th July to 3^rd August, Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, begins in Brittany and finishes a whopping nine days later in Châtel, in the Alps. This is its longest duration yet since its inauguration in 2022. We are looking forward to watching it when it comes through Poitiers on 29^th and 30^th July.

 

20^th and 21^st September, European Heritage weekend, Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, many museums and other cultural sites will be open to the public, often organising special events, and with free or reduced-price entry. 

 

26^th October, clocks go back an hour to Central European Time. 

 

Free museum Sundays

Free museum entry on the First Sundays of the month 

Did you know many national museums in France open for free on the first Sunday of the month? Whilst not exclusive, as there are often restrictions in July and August, and some museums will close for some of the winter months, this is certainly a secret worth knowing and we’ve had some interesting visits over the years, all for free. 

 

Note: not all museums are national and without the financial support from the government, locally or independently run places will not have the ability to offer free entries. If you fancy a cultural city break, it would be worthwhile checking the museum websites to see if they are taking part and plan your visit accordingly.

 

I hope you’ve found this useful and that wherever in France 2025 takes you, you have a wonderful time. I’d love to hear about your adventures and new discoveries.

 

Poitou-Charente myths, legends and history - Baudet or dreadlock donkeys

Baudet donkeys

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

I hope your Christmas was a merry one, we had great fun in Poitiers with Ed, who even joined us on our traditional Christmas Day bike ride. Here is a little something I hope will entertain you and help get you through the post-Christmas slump.

 

Baudet or dreadlock donkeys

 

One of the cutest and most unusual things to originate from the Poitou area has to be our local breed of donkey, the Baudet du Poitou. These beauties are larger than your average donkey and famed for their size and strong bone structure, but it’s not that that attracts me. I adore their peculiarly scruffy look, with their long, chocolate brown, tangled coat that hangs like straggly dreadlocks, and their gorgeous large, furry ears. The dreadlocks form as they moult, when the falling hair becomes felted and attaches to the new hair growth, giving their skin a natural protection from the elements, and tradition dictates these are never brushed out. 

The Baudet donkey

 

They were valued for their breeding of mules, when sired with a Poitevin mare, the Mulassier, and records show they have been around for hundreds of years. Although the breeding was strictly kept in the Poitou region, the mules were exported worldwide and played an important role in the local economy, with the sale of one breeding male donkey earning you enough for a villa on the Atlantic coast. In 1846 at a fair in Champdeniers, 1,500 mules were sold in a single day and there were 18,000 mules born in 1867. With the decline in demand for mules after the Second World War, there was little need for the breeding donkeys and many farms repurposed their space, replacing them with cows. By the 1980’s the Baudets had almost became extinct with less than one hundred remaining.

Baudets at Dampierre-sur-Boutonne

 

I am delighted to say that they have made a comeback, thanks to a conservation breeding programme set up in Dampierre-sur-Boutonne, in the Charente-Maritime. This visitor site includes a museum area that explains all about their history, decline and rebirth, as well as allowing you to wander around the enclosures that are home to around fifty donkeys. You can also book to walk or picnic with a donkey or help at feeding time. If you visit in June, when we did, be prepared for off the scale cuteness as the paddocks are home to the long-legged, dark chocolate brown, velvety foals. They are skittish and full of mischief, but happy to be petted by their adoring fans.

 

A family day out at Dampierre-sur-Boutonne

You can also find them on the Ile de Ré, just off the coast from La Rochelle, where one of the most popular sights for tourists are the Baudets who wear stripy pyjamas on their legs. These give them an extra layer of protection from the flies and mosquitos found in the salt marshes they traditionally worked in.

I hope you have enjoyed getting to know the Baudet. Thank you for another year of reading my blogs, liking, commenting and sharing them. Hearing from you really makes my day. I hope 2025 is a healthy and happy one for you and your loved ones. My next blog will be my annual public and school holiday post, helping you to plan your travels in France. 

 

Happy New Year. 

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - Devil's Bridge

Pont Binot or Devil's bridge, Charente

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

Pont Binot, or Devil’s Bridge 

I hope you are enjoying reading about the myths, legends and history of the Poitou-Charentes at least as much as I am enjoying revisiting some of my favourite places and stories. Last week it was the wells of hell, so it seemed appropriate to recount the tale of the Devil’s bridge this week. I will add links at the end to the other posts in this series, in case you have missed any.

 

Not far from Confolens in the Charente department, there is a stone bridge crossing the river Issoire that has featured a few times on our cycling adventures. I do have a thing for bridges and with its pale stonework glowing in the golden sunshine, and the river peacefully flowing beneath the arches, we’ve always paused to take a photo or two here. What I didn’t know until stumbling upon a podcast recently was that there has been river crossing here since Roman times and that this pretty bridge has long been known as Devil’s Bridge.

 

According to the legend about Pont Binot, the Devil lived a peaceful life beside the Issoire river for many years, until the locals began building a bridge. The clattering of carriage wheels over cobbles disturbed his tranquillity so much, he took action. Every evening, he hurtled across their bridge in his cart pulled by enormous beasts, destroying the construction work as their stones tumbled into the river. The villagers prayed to God and protested to the Devil, but he wouldn’t budge.

The majestic 43-metre-high bell tower in Lesterps,
dating from the 11th century

 

 

One day, someone had the idea to use stones from an ancient, ruined abbey, ten kilometres away in Lesterps, reasoning that consecrated stones that had been blessed many times over the years might just stand up to the Devil. The stones were transported by the villagers, a new bridge was built and when it was finished, it was blessed once more, just for good measure. During a wild and stormy night, the Devil tried to demolish the bridge again, but this time to no avail. Realising he had been defeated by a more powerful force, he gave up and now sits for all eternity on the banks of the Issoire, transformed into a large rock with a rounded back (that is just about visible at the bottom left of the photo).

The large rock said to be the devil

 

While it is true that there are many similar stories to this, about different bridges in different locations in France, there is something special about this almost hidden bridge that I think makes it worthy of a legend. Although I do have to acknowledge that as this current bridge only dates from the nineteenth century, maybe the Devil did eventually get his revenge on the original bridge. I guess we will never know.

 

A stone’s throw from the Devil’s bridge is the tourist site of Coriobona. Built by the Gaulois d’Esse Association, it is a reconstruction of the buildings and objects of a life-size, small, fortified Gaulois settlement, that enables visitors to discover the history of the Lémovices, a Gallic people from the Limousin who date back over two thousand years. Sadly, much as I love associations like this who bring history to life, we have not yet had the opportunity to visit. Its opening times are rather limited and seem to clash with my work at the Château de Javarzay. 

Map of France showing Roman towns 

As for the Romans, who invaded the lands of the Gaul’s, giving rise to the Gallo-Roman period of French history, we live within a triangle of Poitiers (Limonum) to the north, Saintes (Mediolanum Santonum) to the southwest and Limoges (Augustoritum) to the southeast. The Romans built roads connecting these towns to each other and onto Lyon (Lugdunum) in the east, on the Voie d’Agrippa. It is therefore no surprise that they were the first to create a river crossing at this site and that we don’t have to go too far from home to find vestiges of Roman life in the Poitou-Charentes. In fact, long before the Renaissance château was built at Javarzay, it was the site of a Gallo-Roman farm, called Gavarciacum, the domain that belonged to Gavarcus – which is where the name Javarzay originates from. 

 

Roman amphitheatre Saint-Cybardeaux, Charente

Our travels by bike this year, although more limited than previous years, have still taken us to huge amphitheatres, the remains of villas and an impressive underground aqueduct that supplied water to Saintes. 

Roman underground aqueduct, Charente-Maritime

To discover more about Roman life in our area, I can recommend a visit to the fascinating Ruaranum museum in Rom. Situated in what is now a small rural village of a few hundred inhabitants, it was once a major stopover town and home to over four thousand people, as well as commerces, trades and the all-important Roman baths – part of which can still be seen. This gem of a museum houses an array of artifacts found during local archaeological digs, as well as maps and explanations of life in the Roman empire and for a small village, was a huge surprise. There are also arial photographs showing traces of the Roman buildings that can still be seen in the farmland today, revealing just how large and important Rom or Ruaranum was.

Links to previous posts: 

 

Le puits d’enfer 

La Jungle 

La Dame de Chambrille 

Jean-François Cail 

La fée Mélusine 

The cries through the fog 

Whooping cough, headdresses and heartthrobs 

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas however and wherever you celebrate. Without Mini, ours will be different this year, plus Ed has just moved flats, so Christmas preparations were overtaken by packing, lists and flat-pack furniture building this week, but we will be spending Christmas Day together, in his new flat, enjoying family time and simple, homemade food (so long as the new oven arrives and I can work out how to use it). Wish me luck!