Travel Guide Rives D’autise

Formerly Nieul-sur-l'Autise, before merging with the commune of Oulmes to become Rives-d'Autise, this adorable little commune of the South Vendée, at the gates of the Marais Poitevin, labeled "Petite Cité de caractère", really deserves a visit. Nieul-sur-l'Autise, which takes its name from " Novioialos ", " new place " and from its river Autise. It has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, as evidenced by the prehistoric enclosure of Champ-Durand registered as a Historic Monument. In the center of the village, don't miss the visit of the Saint-Vincent abbey founded in 1067, a real jewel of Romanesque art. Classified as a historical monument, it is one of the rare monastic complexes of the Romanesque Bas-Poitou which has preserved its abbey, cloister with its four galleries, and conventual buildings. Eleanor of Aquitaine, then queen of France, granted it the status of royal abbey in 1141. At the end of the tour, , the House of Eleanor and its museography plunge visitors into the heart of medieval monastic life by revealing the origins of monasticism in the region as well as the different stages in the creation of the Marais Poitevin. A little further along the river, the Maison de la Meunerie houses the family home of the former miller and the water mill dating from 1728 with its large paddle wheel, its cormwood gears and its flint millstones. Restarted in 1998, this site brings back to life the last water mill in the Vendée using a traditional method of crushing grain on a stone millstone. A few steps away, the park of the Château du Vignaud offers a green setting for relaxation