#5: [12-Feb-23]

#4: [22-Dec-17]

#2: [27-May-07]

#1: [30-Oct-01]

24-Apr-2013 -- The dual confluence.

At 37 m of the Confluence of 47° N and 1° W the Lovers brook with the beautiful French name Ruisseau des Amourettes confluence with the river Sèvre Nantaise.

The DCP is on a steep slope of about 30° with rocks, trees and especially awful vegetation like holly, untamed blackberries and with some hidden barbed wire.

My GPS told me the small platform at the left side of the leading photograph contains the DCP, but when I descended to it the same GPS was not willing to confirm it on the spot. As the NESW photographs from that platform would only show dense vegetation I went down to the floor of the valley and made the photographs at 18 m NW from the DCP. The North looking photograph shows the river Sèvre Nantaise. The DCP is uphill in the East looking photograph. The South looking photograph shows the valley, which can be recognised in visit #1 and visit #2. Finally the West looking photograph shows the brook of which confluence with the Sèvre Nantaise is depicted in the right side of the leading photograph.

Driving on the D160, about 1.5 km South of Mortagne sur Sèvre a narrow road signed La Marquisière goes west. Follow this road for 1.8 km to the chapel, enter the dead end road and follow for 1.3 km to La Roche sur Sèvre. The map shows this last part of my route by car by purple dots; the chapel is in the bottom-right corner. From here I walked (purple lines) through two meadows, the second meadow with a menhir. The third field was dominated by blackberries but also with a lot of small trails made by animals. At the end of the field a pole of a high voltage power line is a clear beacon. The radius of the red circle is 100 m. The last part is indicated in purple in the detailed insert. The steep slope is about 50 m after the pole. I could see other people had descended so I dared to continue (its a long time ago I was a teenager and being alone I have to take care of myself). The GPS position in the bottom right corner is from the position of the NESW photographs. The digital recording indicates minimal distances to the DCP of 2 m. Without animals in the meadows this was an easy access.

The day before I arrived with my tent at camping Le Rouge Gorge (the Robin) in St Laurent sur Sèvre, only 8 km south-east from the DCP. Walking around in the village I noticed 2 very large churches, while the village is rather small. In a shop with religious books and merchandise I asked why this village has two such large churches. The answer started with “we have FIVE churches”. St Laurent is a place of pilgrimage because two Roman Catholic Saints are buried in the Basilica. Pope John-Paul XII visited in 1996 the town during a pilgrimage. More information at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre.

The last photograph is my usual collection of flowers. Mark the blue flowers (top-left) which I found in St. Laurent; it is Purple Toothwort (Lathraea clandestina), a rare parasitic plant. Question: who knows the name of the plant (right) which was growing at the slope of the DCP. I had not the time to stay a couple of days to see the flowers develop. The leaves in the background belong to the plant.