La Jaudonnière combines church history with a rural landscape of bocage, woodland and sunken lanes. This gives visitors two distinct reasons to choose the destination: historic buildings and routes through the landscape of the Vendée du Sud. The village’s history includes the Église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine and the ruins of the Ancienne Église Saint-Pierre de Pareds. To explore the landscape, there are two different types of route: a designated cycling loop and a stage of the GR 364.
Bocage, valleys and sunken lanes
The area known as “Bocage et bois entre la forêt de Vouvant et le sud de Chantonnay” is a continental ZNIEFF Type II natural area and includes the commune of La Jaudonnière. Forests and bocage define this extensive landscape; agricultural intensification there is comparatively moderate for the Vendée. The valleys of the Smagne and Longève are also part of the area, which is notable, among other things, for otters and red-backed shrikes. Sunken lanes are another feature of La Jaudonnière’s rural landscape. Nature can therefore be explored on two scales: the extensive forest and bocage area with its valleys, and the sunken lanes within the commune’s landscape.
Comparing the cycling loop and the GR stage
The Boucle des Vergers is a 33-kilometre circular route designated as a Vendée-Vélo cycling route. It passes through Saint-Martin-Lars-en-Sainte-Hermine, La Caillère-Saint-Hilaire and La Jaudonnière. The GR 364 offers a different kind of route: a 24-kilometre stage in the Vendée du Sud takes visitors along the sunken lanes of La Caillère-Saint-Hilaire and La Jaudonnière. On this stage, the routes pass through chestnut woods and bocage that remains largely intact in both communes. The routes differ in both format and focus: one is a circular route designated for cycling, while the other is a GR stage featuring sunken lanes and chestnut woods.
Churches and a former railway line
The Église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine was built between 1665 and 1700 on the site of an earlier, larger church. It has a polychrome altarpiece dating from the 17th century; the altar comes from the chapel of Luçon Cathedral. The Ancienne Église Saint-Pierre de Pareds offers another historical perspective. Dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, it now stands in ruins; its surviving features include walls, partition walls and a Gothic window. After the church in La Jaudonnière was destroyed in 1562, Saint-Pierre de Pareds served as the parish church until the church was rebuilt in 1700.
The area’s transport history is also linked to a specific local place: the former Vouvant-Cezais–Chantonnay railway line ran through La Jaudonnière. La Jaudonnière-Pareds station was one of two new stations on the line, which opened for service on 28 May 1900. The route and station history thus add another historical perspective to the architectural history of the churches.
Discover more destinations: Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin, La Boissière-des-Landes, Chantonnay, Mareuil-Sur-Lay-Dissais, Île d'Yeu, La Châtaigneraie, Saint-Avaugourd-des-Landes, Pouzauges
For the broader travel overview: Vendée.
