LITTLE VENICES ❘ UNDISCOVERED FRANCE


Clockwise from far left: A footbridge crosses the water in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue;


the ford and the Pont Henri IV at Soulaines-Dhuys; the River Somme has earned Amiens its nickname of ‘Little Venice of the


North’;Annecy’s Old Town; Saint-Leu, Amiens; pretty


Pont-Audemer; the Féérie nautique light show on the river in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue


ACQUA ALTA Not all the Little Venices can boast such a long history. With its 400 inhabitants, the commune of Soulaines-Dhuys, in Champagne, adopted the name ‘Venise Verte de l’Aube’ only 20 years ago, with the idea of promoting the sites of the Aube department. “The village of the Champagne wetlands is crisscrossed by streams, spanned by a dozen bridges, the oldest of which, the Henri IV bridge, was built in 1607,” explains Elisabeth Guindot, from the Grands Lacs de Champagne Tourist Office. “Since ancient times, it has been shaped by a resurgence from which two rivers flow: the Laines and the Dhuys, which meet in the centre of the village and thus form a small island. A third river, the Ru des Vignes, crosses Soulaines- Dhuys and flows into the Laines. In fact, in old Celtic, Dhuys means ‘resurgence’. The Ru des Vignes is usually dry, but when the water level rises, it causes flooding in the village. The last one was in July 2021.” It’s probably not dissimilar to the Acqua Alta in Venice, the phenomenon of the rising waters of the Adriatic Sea which cause the city to flood at certain times of the year. To these towns and villages, we can add Annecy: its nickname of ‘Venice of the Alps’ comes from the blue-green waters of its lake and canals but, unlike its Italian model, they are closed to navigation. We could also add Goudargues, the ‘Little Venice of the Gard’, crossed by a single canal; Port Grimaud, on the Mediterranean coast, the most recent ‘Little Venice’; the ‘Little Venice of Colmar’ in Alsace; La Canourgue, the ‘Little Venice of Lozère’; Bonneval, the ‘Little Venice of Beauce’; and Sète, ‘Venice of the Languedoc’. The point is that, without a doubt, Venice is everywhere. Because, as Serge Reggiani, himself of Italian origin, sang: “Venice is not in Italy, Venice is in anyone’s home [...] It’s anywhere, it’s the other side of rainy mornings, it’s the place where you are happy.” FT


in France, flows through the famous Hortillonnages, 300 hectares of former marshland which were transformed in the Middle Ages into floating market gardens. They were interspersed with rieux, canals fed by the river’s branches around which the city was built and which still remain today.


The importance of the river’s past can easily be appreciated by walking through the maze of streets and canals of the Saint-Leu district, in the centre of the Picardy capital. It’s impossible to get lost in this area, because when you look up, you always see Notre-Dame Cathedral, the largest Gothic building in France. It’s also possible to visit the Hortillonnages by bateau à cornet, a type of flat-bottomed boat once used by market farmers to sell their produce. The tradition has been maintained: every Saturday of the year, a market takes place on the edge of the canals and the vegetables still come from the Hortillonnages.


Feb/Mar 2023 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 57


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