August 2019
We had a wonderful, relaxing holiday exploring the Marais Poitevin in west of France. This was a part of our weeklong trip, which I found incredibly beautiful and mesmerizing so thought of sharing the photos and my experience of this, part natural and part man made beauty.
Our day 1 began in the charming village of Coulon of Marais Poitevin, (the capital of Green Venice with beautiful houses on the banks of Sévre Niortaise river) where we rented a flat boat, I preferred to be with a guide: a safe option but Manoj and Bhaskar wanted to row the boat themselves. There began our journey, an interesting one, of navigating through the narrow and wide canals of the wet marsh, soaking in the heavenly beauty of the nature. It was unthinkably quiet as we did this in the early hours of the morning and were lucky enough to see the majestic birds of the region. While I did my job of sight seeing pretty well, the two men behind me had quite a time rowing the boat; chatting, laughing and arguing about not being able to synchronise the movements of the oar. And so, we safely, merrily completed our circuit on the waterways of the marshland.
Day 2 was in Arçais, Magné, Maillezais and Saint Hilaire la plaud villages, While in Magné, Bhaskar ventured on a canoe and went all alone for an hour long expedition. His words when he returned: when I was on the wide waterway of the river all by myself, I realised how large that wilderness was relative to me! TBH, I was scared, not much but yes scared because it was the first time he tried canoeing without any prior experience but at the same time felt happy that he did it.
In Saint Hilaire la plaud and Maillezais we took the traditional boat again and this time I had no doubts or fear whatsoever in getting on without a guide. I already had two beside me 
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The beauty of doing the Marais on the boat is that you could see the pretty villages on the banks of the canal, take a halt and hop on the boat again at your own pace. There is also an Ornithologic park at Saint Hilaire la plaud where you can have a great bird view and if you are at the right time of the year you could spot migratory birds too. If you are looking for an interesting place to see in France do visit Marais Poitevin: a scenic, one of a kind and totally unaffected by time destination.
