A-Z of the Communes in the Deux-Sèvres

Saint Rémy

by Sue Burgess

Church at Saint Rémy

Saint Rémy is situated North-West of Niort, just a few minutes from the Marais Poitevin. There are more than one thousand inhabitants in the commune and they are known as the Remytois and Remytoises.

The commune was the inspiration for the imaginary village of Sérigny in the novel « les Gardiennes» by Ernest Pérochon. The novel was published in 1924 and is about the life and labour of country women in the Deux-Sèvres during the first world war when the menfolk were all away fighting at the front. With the men away, the women needed to continue bringing up and educating the children, cultivating the land, looking after the livestock etc. The women became the keepers (les gardiennes) of the homes and the land.

Situated on a huge plain, with hardly any hills, the little town of Saint Rémy, which is only a few kilometres from Niort in the Deux-Sèvres, used to be, strange as it may seem, a parish that depended on the castellany of Fontenay-le-Comte. The first known name of the town appears, in 1080 in the maps of Saint-Cyprien, as Terra Sancti Remeii in Niortensi, then as Sanctus Remigius in 1260. In 1378 the parish became known as Saint-Remy-de-la-Plaine. Even before the parish church was built, there was a Benedictine priory here; the Priory of Saint-Martin-deLirée. The priory and the monks who lived here depended on a neighbouring abbey at Saint-Liguaire.

The priory church was used as the parish church. Of the XIIth century building, which was ransacked in 1621 by the protestant soldiers of the Lord of St Gelais, only the choir and three buttress columns remain. Three outside windows open into the apse but only the one on the left is ancient. The others were restored in the XIXth century. There is a reminder of an ancient symbol of the sun and two wheels are sculpted on the bottom of the ledge. The tops of the columns are rudimentary. The square bell tower was built later. The church has a bell from a Franciscan convent in La Rochelle. The bell was founded in 1784 by F. Lavouzelle. The nave was built in 1902, under the ministry of Abbé Denizeau.

A Voir / Must see

A XVth century house

An old town dwelling, with an interesting XVth century facade, has been listed as a historical monument since 1929. The private house has a beautiful stone staircase and two large fireplaces.

Lords and fiefdoms…

In 1697, François-Armand de Lorraine, the prior of the Royal Abbey of Notre-Dame des Châtellers (Fomperron) rented out, for an annual sum of three thousand pounds, the houses, and fiefs which depended on this abbey to Daniel Perrot, sire of Belisle, and merchant in the town of Saint-Rémy.

In 1734, records show that Françoise-Marguerite de la Béraudière rented the house, land and fiefdom of SaintRémy-en-Plaine to sire Jean Desaivre. It seems that she was looking after the lands of her father, François-Anne de la Béraudière, captain of the dragoons in the regiment of la Béraudière. Ordinariy she lived in the chateau of Rouhet in Beaumont (Vienne) where she died in 1800. La Goupillère was considered part of the area of Fontenayle-Comte before the Revolution. Boisse was a fief relevant of Saint-Rémy. A chapel, called Saint John’s chapel, depended on it and was used as a parish church by the local priest.

The two towers

The two towers are the remains of an old XVIth chateau.

Six deserters hung

On Saturday 27 November 1574, Michel le Riche writes in his diary, six deserters from the troop of the Huguenot captain Molonnière left their camp and came into Saint-Rémy. They entered the house of a man called Robuffe and after having stolen things from his house asked him for a ransom. After deliberation by Charles de Niort, lieutenant of the Merchant Provost, the six soldiers, Philippe Tranchant, Louis Georges called « la Grange », René Langevin, Achille Dutertre nicknamed « la Cave » and Gabriel Laurens, were hanged from a beam in the merchant’s hall Niort.

In the XIVth century, the powerful duke Jean de Berry told the people of Saint-Rémy, that they had to take it in turns to go and guard the chateau of Niort. A century later the locals rebelled against this abusive order of their lord.

The story of the lord of Boisse and his unfaithful betrothed

This is a story from the time of the crusades. The young lord of la Goupilière, who was betrothed to his neighbour the daughter of the Lord of Boisse, went with other local nobles to fight in the Holy Land. Alas after a long wait for the return of her betrothed, the young girl chose another husband.

Years passed. One winter evening, during her daily stroll, the lady met a pilgrim dressed in a shaggy cowl. She spoke with him for a while. Just as he was about to reveal his identity, the lord of la Goupilière , because it was indeed him, noticed a shiny wedding band on the finger of the woman he thought had been faithful to him. Broken hearted, he went back to his chateau. But the night before Christmas, divine punishment or revenge of betrayed fiancé no-one will ever know, the chateau of Boisse was destroyed by a terrible fire. The occupants perished in the flames. Not even the chapel survived. And since then, buried in the ruins, the bells toll at midnight on Christmas night.

In Saint-Rémy…

In Saint-Rémy, wrote Dupin, the prefet of Deux-Sèvres in 1804, wheat, rye, oats, hemp ; millet and potatoes are harvested. There is a lot of mediocre wine. There are natural fields and a windmill. The land of the commune is a huge quarry of limestone. Commerce consists in the sale of mules, horses, cattle and sheep.

Saint-Rémy ( 1364 hectares ) had 440 habitants in 1750, 495 in 1821, 564 in 1861, 425 in 1911, and 372 in 1921. In 2012, the number of inhabitants was over 1000 for the first time. With the close proximity of Niort for work, the small town has become a popular place to live.