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A hike in the region Pays de la Loire
Situated at the intersection of the historic territories of Anjou and Touraine, Montsoreau is a typical village with a castle sourrounded with steep streets and roads lined with Tuffeau-stone guardrails. As Montsoreau, Turquant is a village where, traditionally, people use to live on wine production, and which presents remarkable troglodytic houses dug in the hillside of the locality Grande Vignolle. Along this hike, marked out in blue, you will discover Montsoreau, the river Loire, birds of this special environment, cave dwellings, vineyards, mills...
1- Walk alongside the Loire river and the backside of the Community Centre. Cross the brook of Arceau and go up to the road.
2- Cross the road and take the track opposite. Turn to the left in the track situated before a former sand quarry.
3- Continue on the road and cross the road D947 carefully. Go straight ahead towards the dead-end Marguerite d'Anjou. Walk past the House of la Vignole.
4- At the top of the dead-end, take the steep path on your right that reaches the top of the hillside. Continue straight ahead. As a short version to the route, you can take the path GR3 to go back directly to the village.
5- Cross the road and take the track which turns to the right, and, at the end, take the path of falun on your left. Go up to a tarred section.
6- Continue straight ahead up to the Mill of Herpinière. Then, turn twice to the left.
7- Take the left track which goes through vineyards towards the mill of Perruche. Before the mill, take the stony path first, and then the paved track on your right which goes downward to the village.
8- At the bottom, turn to the left towards the church Saint-Pierre-de-Rest. Turn to the right in the street of the church. Once at the end, cross the road D 947 carefully. Turn to the right in the alley of l'Oiseau.
9- Go straight ahead up to the housing estate. Take the left track towards the mill "Moulin de la tranchée" (mill of the trench).
10- Go down in the street of Bonnardière up to reach the Place of Dames de Tourzel. Turn to the right in the paved alley of the church Saint Michel, then to the left up to the river.
11- Pass below the castle, walk alongside the river, and get back to the Community Centre.
Information
General points
- Geographic situation. District : Montsoreau
(department Maine-et-Loire, canton Saumur)
Road map with
 - Starting point : Community Centre (Foyer socioculturel) in Montsoreau, banks of Loire.
- The length of the stroll is estimated at 8,8 Km and the walk duration is about 2 h 15 mn.
- The stroll is marked out all along
- Stroll form : loop
- Stroll relief : hilly (alt. mini = 30 m ; alt. maxi = 80 m)
- Maintenance : frequent (brushwood clearing at least annual)
- Exposure : varied (both covered and uncovered areas)
Special conditions-
Access limitation for bikers. Take the route the other way around. Some steps at Vignole.
Events and information
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Worth seeing.
Second Sunday of each month: Montsoreau flea market taking place on the banks.
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Call for your attention.
The path along the bank cannot be accessed during floods.
Noteworthy places
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Château de Montsoreau. As the heart of the old fortified city, the castle of Montsoreau played a major role in the History of France, from Henri II Plantagenêt till Louis XIII. Major events are cited in its annals, e.g. the execution of Protestants in 1572, and Françoise de Maridor, heroine of Alexandre Dumas's famous novel. The successive owners rarely stayed there, so that the castle had undergone the damages of time until it was acquired and, in 2001, restored by Maine-et-Loire Department. When you visit it, do not forget to attend "Les imaginaires de la Loire", which is a scenographic show to illustrate the History of the castle and its royal river.
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Les moulins Caviers. Specific of the Loire valley and its neighborhoods, the windmill "cavier" presents a unique architecture, as it is built upon a basement which is underground when it is in a troglodytic environment. This is the case in Turquant for the mill of Herpinière, which was built in the XVIth century. In the 70s, it was restored and it works well from then on. As an opposite example, the mill La Tranchée, in Montsoreau, settled in the middle of the vineyard, is completely over the ground.
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Les troglodytes des coteaux. The hillside that runs parallel to the river Loire, from Saumur to Montsoreau, is scattered with many seigneurial houses, built with the tuffeau stone extracted from immense subterranean quarries. Near the gate of these properties, generally two or three levels of troglodytic or semi-troglodytic houses were built for "perreyeurs", who were both wine growers and sailors.
Maps
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IGN 1723 O.
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