Easy hikes and walks in Forêt De Valleret

You absolutely must follow the guided tour by this passionate and fascinating volunteer guide, photos are not allowed inside the site but it is worth the detour and the effort to climb to the top of the cliff. It is possible to bring the bikes inside the fence, so they are safe.

This magnificent church building - originally Romanesque - was dedicated to the patronage of "Saint-ETIENNE". He was one of the first seven deacons of the original Jerusalem community and, according to the biblical accounts in the "New Testament", was also the first martyr (martyr) of early Christianity. The church commemorates his death on the second day of Christmas, December 26th. As the Acts of the Apostles report: When Stephen expressed his vision of the open heavens "But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Chapter 7, Verse 55), the people were so outraged that they drove him out of the city and stoned him.

magnificent place full of calm, on the edge of the estuary of the gironde and the limestone cliffs.

Linked to the Gironde estuary by a channel fed by the Juliat (a modest stream rising a few kilometers upstream, at Font-Garnier), the port itself consists of a channel five meters wide, directly linked to the estuary, and lined with small jetties where boats moor. It ends with a bridge-lock, where the green route (Royan-Bordeaux tourist route) passes. Historically, the port of St Seurin d'Uzet trade (salt, grain and wood were shipped there for a long time, mainly to make barrels), it was also, on occasion, a port of war, protected by a castle. since the Middle Ages. In 1559, they set up fishing there for cod on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, a very lucrative activity at the time. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Saint-Seurin was a pilot station for boatmen, who helped inexperienced sailors make their way through this willingly capricious "rivyere de Bourdeaux". The inhabitants who have a boat go out to fish for sturgeon (called Créa or Créac in Saintongeais and Occitan), meager or lamprey, and occasionally "traffic" with the other ports of the estuary. If the flesh of the sturgeon is eaten, the eggs are, at best, fed to the ducks! In 1866, a German merchant passing through the region, named Schwax, took offense at this practice and introduced a man named Roux, a fisherman in Saint-Seurin, to the techniques of preparing caviar. In 1902, the La Rochelle house Toutblanc took a close interest in Girondin caviar. However, badly prepared, too salty, too expensive too, it hardly seduces amateurs. Soon, sturgeon eggs are once again the delight of farmyard birds. The situation changed in the 1920s. Tradition has it that a Russian aristocrat exiled in France after the 1917 revolution, passing through Saint-Seurin, saw with horror a fisherman throwing the precious caviar back into the sea. Indignant, she would have said to him: “it is a crime that you are committing, it is with these eggs that we manufacture caviar, at home, in Russia and it is a pure marvel! ". A Russian specialist is sent on site. The Prunier house bought the exclusive rights and soon, four “preparers” embarked on this activity in Saint-Seurin: MM. René and Jude Milh, Mr. Saint-Blancard and Mr. Ephrem. In the 1950s, up to 3 to 5 tonnes of sturgeon were fished per year, and the fish soon became scarce. The state banned this activity in 1982 (the sturgeon having become an endangered species in the region), and since then this prestigious commodity has continued to be produced on both sides of the estuary under the name of caviar de Gironde or caviar d Aquitaine, but exclusively on aquaculture farms.

The 1st human settlement in St Seurin takes the form of a Roman villa on the promontory where the medieval castle will stand in the shadow of which a village will develop for which will be built a 1st church dedicated to ST Martin, the apostle of the Gauls. A Romanesque church was built in the 12th century which, like the first churches of the diocese, depended on the bishop of Saintes. In 1174, one of them; Adhamar Carbonnel, conceded the church of the village of Uzel to the Prior of Mortagne. The latter is a Chamoine of the newly founded Order of St Augustine. This order works for the reform of the church after years of negligence and submission to the various temporal powers (reform known as Gregorian after the name of Pope Gregory VII, who inspired this breath of renewal in the middle of the 11th century). One of the great names of this order is an Aquitanian, Geoffroy de Loroux who, in 1136, becomes Archbishop of Bordeaux (he will participate in the Foundation of the Abbey of Sablonceaux which also depended on the Order of St Augustin). It is probably this connection with Aquitaine via the order of the Canons of St Augustin and the Priory of Mortagne which explains the new dedication of the parish church of Uzet to St Seurin, a St Bishop of Bordeaux from the beginning of the 5th century whose historicity is problematic even if it has a Basilica in Bordeaux dating from the beginning of the 11th century. St Seurin (Severinus), born in the East, would have arrived in Bordeaux around 410 and providentially met Bishop Arnandus. This one after a dream where the Lord would have told him that he had to go to meet his servant Severin, fell into his arms and together they returned to the church singing aloud psalms (comments collected in the book of Grégoire de Tours dedicated to the St Shepherds of Gaul). This is how Severinus would have become bishop of Bordeaux. Having become dilapidated and having suffered greatly from the horrors of the religious wars, the church of Uzet was abandoned during the 17th century, its destruction was ordered in 1707. A new church was rebuilt nearby in 1689 but near the port, there where the new town had settled. This church is mentioned in 1709 by C. Masse during one of his wanderings in Saintonge, mentioning a "large chapel". Work continued until its official consecration in 1710 by the Archpriest of St Fort, Fleurinon, and the titular priest of the Parish of St Seurin d'Uzet, Michel Allary. Between 1857 and 1859, a restoration campaign was led by Victor Fontorbe, who slightly modified the structure of the building. This neo-Romanesque building forms a single vessel with 2 bays, ending in a semi-circular apse. 2 apsidioles are added to the nave, one of which, dating from 1721, houses the seigniorial chapel of the barons of Uzet. The vaults of the sanctuary are fully framed, like the hull of an overturned ship. The neo-Toman style facade features arcades and corbels surmounting a tympanum representing Christ and the Evangelists.

Originally, the Romanesque building had a Latin cross plan with an apse on each transept arm and a single nave. A first intervention was carried out in the Gothic period, perhaps after the Hundred Years War, at least on the vault of the south transept arm and the openings. The building suffered a lot of damage during the Wars of Religion (traces of fire in the north; mutilation of the upper parts of the transept; reconstruction of the sanctuary with a flat apse). The presence of stalls in the choir, which do not predate the 18th century, attests to the function of the conventual priory still at that time. Thirteen canons regular of the order of Saint Augustine were attached to it. In the 19th century saw the light of day the construction project of a bell tower that could serve as a berth for boats sailing on the Gironde. From 1857, the expansion of the church and the construction of the bell tower were recognized as essential. The architect Alaux's project was selected and the sculpture work on the new bell tower-porch was entrusted to the statuary Aristide Belloc. The old facade is demolished to make room for it. The western span of the nave has been lengthened. The apse has become flat and only the south apse of the transept has been preserved. The old exterior elements are in the residual state. Inside, in the crossing of the transept, the bundles of Romanesque columns have been preserved. Carved capitals bear witness to the original building (confronted animals, stylized foliage palmettes, foliage, interlacing). In the south arm of the transept, a molding resting on figure bases and a flattened capital decorated with three faces with departures of ribs, testify to the restorations and the heightening of the transept at the end of the Middle Ages (14th or 15th century).