Poitou-Charentes legends - the cries through the fog

A misty evening in the Deux-Sèvres

Looking back over the last twenty years, autumn days that began with a foggy start, nearly always became hot, sunny afternoons, so much so, opening the shutters to the morning mist, made me smile. This year once more, the weather has thrown a new pattern at us and there have been many days where the sun tried, but failed, to break through the foggy start. 

 

In our department of the Deux-Sèvres in western France, Meteo France reported that on average, September this year was 80% wetter than normal and October 45%, with some hillier areas (around Parthenay) recording levels of rain 150% higher than they are used to. It is no surprise that soil humidity levels have also reached record highs for this time of year, feeding the hungry fog monster that seems reluctant to share with the sunshine. All this just one year on from water restrictions that were brought in mid-October, alongside news articles reporting record low levels in the water table.

 

Foggy fields in the Deux-Sèvres

The low cloud and grey skies this year have at times made me feel quite claustrophobic, and that was before this misty phase began, so I am really hoping this won’t become a new norm thanks to climate instability. Despite my woes, we have fared better than those who live just a bit further north from us, around the Loire valley, where a local news report stated a weather station in Angers hasn’t registered one minute of sunshine in the last ten days. This week, as we celebrated a sunny start with a cycle ride into Chef-Boutonne for morning coffee with friends, we could see the dark, purple bruise of fog looming low on the horizon to our north. 

 

Ile de Ré, Charente-Maritime

Now the 2024 season at the Château de Javarzay is over, I have had more time on my hands to dive into some reading about the legends of the Poitou-Charentes and in particular, places we have visited. When I found one that talked of foggy nights, and an historical battle on Ile de Ré that took place on 8^th November, nearly four hundred years ago, I knew it needed more investigation.

 

Our area has a fascinating link to the rise of the Protestant religion, thanks mainly to the trade routes between Poitiers and the port at La Rochelle. Poitiers university is one of the oldest in France, dating from 1431 and whereas the Sorbonne in Paris had no sympathy for the new religious ideas of the Protestants, they found the academics at Poitiers to be more accommodating. The Protestants felt that the Catholic Church had become too powerful, too corrupt and was making too much money. They wanted a religion that was accessible to everyone, not just those who read Latin, and where simple prayer was more important than the worshipping of relics and paying the church for forgiveness. Their ideas began to spread, mainly with the merchants who were moving towards La Rochelle with wheat, as the limestone rich soil here produced a drier grain that was less likely to rot when loaded onto the sea-going vessels. The inevitable clashes between the supporters of the two religions led to a turbulent time.

 

Sablanceaux beach, Ile de Ré

In 1627, La Rochelle was under siege as Cardinal Richelieu and the troops of Louis XIII closed in around the Protestant stronghold. In June, the Duke of Buckingham had arrived on the Atlantic coast island of the Ile de Ré with eighty boats and around four thousand men, to support the Protestants in La Rochelle. The English landed on the beach in Sablanceaux and gained control of the island from the governor, the Count of Toiras, holding it for three months, until Richelieu sent four thousand troops over from the mainland. 

La Couarde-sur-mer with Loix in the distance, Ile de Ré

The retreating English had one objective, to head west to rejoin their boats moored near Loix. On the 8^th November, at the wooden bridge in Feneau, between La Couarde-sur-mer and Loix, a bloody battle ensued that saw the losses of over two thousand English soldiers and two hundred of their horses. It is said that if you are out on foggy nights on the marshlands around Feneau, the cries and eery moaning of the English soldiers can still be heard, along with a dull voice repeating “tue (kill), tue, tue…” – the echo of the soul of the French troops harangued by their superiors to finish off the English.

 

A typical souvenir shop on Ile de Ré

I’m happy to report that the Ile de Ré is a much more peaceful place to visit these days and somewhere we enjoy cycling, although only outside of the main tourist season. It might no longer be a battleground, but it is still witness to an invasion of thousands of holidaymakers every summer. I wonder how many of them know about the bloody history of the island, or have heard the cries in the fog as they leave the main tourist paths and venture into the marshlands?