Balade en famille à grands pas à Saint-Martin-de-Ré

Departure from the Tourist Office towards the port then follow the Job Foran quay to the intersection with rue Baron de Chantal.

The Port - Wine and more generally the vineyard, established by monks from the 12th and 13th centuries, were the first wealth. Today, there are 650 hectares of vines which produce 30 to 35 hectoliters of wine per hectare, or around 2 million bottles per year.
Salt was also one of the main exported riches. Up to 30,000 tonnes of white gold were harvested at the beginning of the last century. Today the marina is made up of 2 basins: the first connected directly to the sea and the second afloat (filled with water) 24 hours a day. it can accommodate more than 200 boats.
The Bagnards map – A convict was a condemned to the galleys or forced labor in the penal colony, a prisoner held at the citadel of Saint-Martin-de-Ré between 1873 and 1938, one of them drew this map during his detention. Convicts (inmates)
reached New Caledonia and Guyana from the Port of Saint-Martin.

Turn left and go all the way up " Rue Baron de Chantal."
The sculpted skull is the work of Mr. Thézard to express his discontent and hatred towards the Second World War and its atrocities.

Take "Cours Bailly des Écotais" on the right and continue left onto "Rue Bailly d’Aulan."
The church - We do not know its date of construction but we know that in 1610 it was already in ruins. Over the centuries, the church experienced numerous destructions. First of all, in 1627, while the town was besieged by the English, Marshal de Thoiras (defender of the island of Ré) ordered his troops to raze the bell towers of the church in order to prevent the enemy installs his cannons there. In 1696, the Dutch launched more than 3,000 bombs on Saint-Martin, which
led to the destruction of more than 300 houses and of course the church. In 1694, a fire broke out, the framework and the choir were completely destroyed.
In architecture, the choir, from the Greek khoros (set of singers), is the part of a church reserved for members of the clergy and liturgical, or Gregorian, choirs. Despite these numerous damages, the inhabitants will make every effort
inexorably, to rebuild and renovate what still remains to this day the only Catholic place of worship.
Go back up rue "Bailly d’Aulan" to "Place de la République."
Place de la République - It was designed in 1685 by Vauban
on an old Catholic cemetery. This place was then a place
strategic, since it was equidistant from the port and the two gates
access point to the city (the Campani gate and the Thoiras gate). This
which allowed, in the event of an attack, an effective deployment of soldiers.
It will successively bear the name of “place d’armes”, “place Louis
XIV", "place Louis XV", "place Nationale", before becoming "place de
the Republic".

If you still have a little strength, continue along rue Carnot and rue Aristide Briand which will take you to the next monument.

The "Porte des Campani" at the entrance to "rue du Rempart", there is a second very similar one, the "Porte de Toiras", on the other side of Saint-Martin-de-Ré. They were both the only entrances to the city in the 17th century.
century, these doors could be closed, like those of a fortified castle, to
protect the population in the city surrounded by fortifications.
Go back down towards the Port via "Cours Pasteur", you can now cross the road, paying attention to the cars. You will discover the fortifications with a breathtaking view of the ditches! On your right you will find a hotel and just opposite it a secret passage called Poterne, this will take you to the heart of the ramparts, in peace, where you can discover the scale and size of these constructions. A postern is a small door which was integrated into the walls of a fortification, in a discreet way and which allowed the inhabitants of the
castle to leave or enter without the knowledge of the besieger. The fortifications - Imagine that 12 kilometers of walls surround the city while in the 17th century there was no machinery or concrete to build all of this. The workers erected and glued these stones using lime (natural concrete of the time). The main constituents of this natural glue were wood brought from the forests of Poitou, limestone extracted from the Taillebourg quarries then brought back by boat and on the backs of animals and finally the essential fuel, coal which was imported from England.
yet our great rival at the time. It is now time to rest or to go back down to the port, continuing along " Cours Pasteur". Walk around the ramparts then go back down to the "Quai des Torpilleurs" which runs alongside the water basin. Then the "Quai de la Poithevinière" will take you to the market.

Arrival: The Market – After two centuries of negotiations between the hospice (building manager) and the municipality, the latter remains the sole owner of the market. The covered market was therefore built on an old Protestant temple razed after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes: the Sun King (Louis XIV) means that there is no longer any religion authorized in France apart from the Catholic religion. This is a hard blow for the still quite numerous Protestant minority
despite previous bullying and persecution

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