“Not a road over nearly 2,700 ha”: in Deux-Sèvres with the convicts of the Marais poitevin

2023-07-07 09:25:01

In the heart of the Marais poitevin there remains a handful of convicts, the last market gardeners to make wooden trains. These hard-working lumberjacks cut, assemble and transport by waterway trees that are inaccessible to logging trucks. “Here, there are only canals, coves and ditches. Not a road on nearly 2,700 ha of marshes. It’s the only way to get the wood out,” summarizes Jonathan Perrault. This 50-year-old has been criss-crossing the wet marshes for more than three decades and officiates with his team near Coulon and Magné (Deux-Sèvres). “To see that, you have to go to Canada or to the Mississippi, in the United States. Here, all the elders are gone. The others don’t want to invest,” he says.