Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.Commune d'Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis, INSEE
By population as well as by economic weight, it is one of the three main urban centres of the Pays d'Aunis along with Surgères and Marans.
The commune has been awarded one flower by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis in the Competition for Towns and Villages in Bloom
Geography
Geographical description
Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is a small town of 4,677 inhabitants (2023), located in the northwest quarter of the department of Charente-Maritime, in the region of Aunis, 25 km east of La Rochelle, 22 km north of Rochefort and 15 km west of Surgères.Distance between town centres as shown in the Michelin Road Maps for Charente, Charente-Maritime, n°324, Edition 6 – 2008
Serving the city The commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is traversed south of the urban area by the Highway D939 which connects La Rochelle to Périgueux, via Surgères and Angoulême.This is the former NR139. This route is also the old Royal Route from Périgueux to La Rochelle, as it was until the end of the July Monarchy. It was then the old Imperial Route 139 during the Second Empire
The commune is connected to Rochefort by the main road D5 which follows the old railway line (closed in 1953).Gérard Blier, History of Transport in Charente-Maritime, Le Croît Vif, études documentaires, 2003, p. 132. This "new" route, for that era, directly linked Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis to Rochefort, while the "Ancient Route", Highway D116, passed through Le Thou and rejoined at Puydrouard (commune of Forges. The inhabitants had to pass these villages to get to Rochefort, so they did not catch the train. The D116, which was more-or-less parallel to the old way, was made a "declassified" road to the benefit of the D5. Reported in the Michelin Route Map – Charente, Charente-Maritime, n°324, édition 6 – 2008
Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is traversed in the south of the urban area by the Poitiers-La Rochelle railway line. It is double tracked and was electrified in 1993 to allow passage of the TGV to La Rochelle Station.
Villages, localities and distances in the commune
The commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis officially became an urban commune after the population census of 1982.
In his communal notice that he issued for Aigrefeuille, M. A. Gautier informed his contemporaries that the commune had ten villages and eight hamlets, besides the town, a situation that stood in 1839.M.A. Gautier, Dictionary of communes in Lower Charente, Memory lanes, Saintes, p. 59
Today, around Aigrefeuille the villages of La Taillee, and Bois-Gaillard are clustered on the right bank of the Virson stream. On the left bank in the south-west is the large village of La Fragnée and on the right bank is the village of Le Pere.
In the south, the village Le Grand Chemin establishes a connection between the urban residential area of Aigrefeuille, the industrial area of Fief-Girard, and the station district along the Avenue d'Aunis, itself extended by the Grand Chemin.
In the Southeast of the conurbation and separated by the small rustic wooded valley of Virson, the residential areas have spread around the ancient village of L'Angle and have merged with the villages of Bois-Gaillard and La Taillée.
To the northeast of Aigrefeuille is the village of Frace, which gave its name to the lake, gradually submerged by two major urban housing estates (Le Hameau du Lac and Le Fief des Dames).
Away from the central urban area, in the south-east, is another large village called La Planterie. The latter is located between Puydrouard, a large village in the neighbouring commune of Forges, and the conurbation of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis.
At the northern edge of the commune and straddling the commune boundary, there is a small area called Panonnière. It is located on a small hill facing the small neighbouring commune of Virson.
Just west of the commune and adjacent to Croix-Chapeau, is the former NATO military hospital complex of which was closed in 1967In 1967, at the insistent demand of General de Gaulle, the Americans were obliged to abandon the military hospital complex, which was named the "Camp of Croix-Chapeau" and since has been transformed into a business area: the Grands Champs zone, which extends over 56 hectares.
Location and surrounding communities Six communes have boundaries with the Aigrefeuille d'Aunis, all these communes are located in the department of Charente-Maritime.
The three major cities closest to Aigrefeuille d'Aunis are to the west: La Rochelle, south: Rochefort, and east: Surgères all the cities of Aunis are located in the northwest of the Charente-Maritime.
Geology, topography and natural landscapes The extent of the communal, with a total area of 1676 hectares, is entirely within the limestone plain of Aunis which is located to the north of the Little Flanders marsh, a part of the Rochefort marshes.
The entire commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is located on Jurassic sediments, which cover the entire plain of Aunis and extend into Angoumois north of the Charente river. Late Jurassic Limestone and marl outcrops appear clearly on the surface of the hilly part of the commune,BRGM Geological Map – Scale: 1/50,000 – Reference: GO634 – Edition: 001 while in the small depression which corresponds to the upstream part of the valley of Virson, are deposits from the Quaternary period. These are sedimentary deposits of fluvio-marine origin from the Flandrian transgression which were covered by further formations, specifically peat, due to congestion and stagnation of watercourses. There are many peat bogs east of the communal territory extending into the neighbouring commune of Forges.
The town has very little relief with the average altitude being 25 metres – ranging from the lowest point of 12 metres at Lake Frace, to the highest point of 38 metres at the small hill, between the site of Pannonière and the low hills in the commune of Saint-Christophe, north of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis.IGN – Topographic Map of Surgeres – Scale: 1/25,000 – Reference: 1429E – Edition: 006
All of the commune is located in a flat area, with wide horizons, yielding a landscape based on the open field system characteristic of farming in Europe. Aigrefeuille d'Aunis is located in the heart of the cereal plain of Aunis, which is reminiscent of Beauce.
The commune is still quite wooded in parts – e.g. the leisure site at Lake Frace, the wooded banks of the Virson stream between the villages of La Fragnée and Le Pere, and the tourist site of La Taillée.
Hydrography The city of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis occupies a depression which in medieval times was a floodplain, formed of marshes and peat conducive to forests composed mainly of trees that prefer a damp environment (alder and ash in particular). The commune is traversed in its entire length from south-west to north-east by the branches of a small stream, the Virson. This continues its course towards the north-east of the plain of Aunis and swollen by waters of several other streams, becomes a small watercourse in the eponymous village of Virson and joined on its left side by the Curé, a small coastal river that flows into the Bay of Aiguillon south of the estuary of the Sèvre.
Inside the commune of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis, the many branches of the Virson are the origin of a small river, one of whose arms forms the communal boundary with the commune of Forges to the east, while another branch takes its source from a lake area that feeds Lake Frace. This lakeside site, located northeast of the city, is in fact composed of two interconnected ponds.
Finally, the importance of this stream comes from the fact that it was used to secure the habitat and human activities in the commune since medieval times. Thus, the town of Aigrefeuille and the villages and hamlets of La Fragnée, Le Pere, La Taillée, Bois-Gaillard, and Frace, have developed on either side of the river all along its course.
Climate The climate is an oceanic climate: the rainfall is relatively high in autumn and winter and the winters are mild. The summer is tempered by the sea breeze. Two winds from the ocean, the "noroît" and the "suroît", blow on the coast of the department. The sunshine of the Charente coast averages 2,250 hours per year which is comparable to that experienced by parts of the Mediterranean coast.Préfecture of Charente-Maritime: Metro France
The records of the meteorological station of La Rochelle between 1946 and 2000 allow the determination of some key dates for the climate perspective in Charente-Maritime: the coldest recorded temperature was on 15 February 1956: −13.6 °C. the highest recorded temperature (exceeded only during the 2003 heat wave) was reached on 8 July 1982 with nearly 39 °C in the shade.
1953 was the driest year and 2000 was the wettest.Summary for Metro-France from 1946 to 2000 , on the website of Bernezac.com
The Charente-Maritime is the French department, which was hardest hit by Hurricane Martin on 27 December 1999. National records recorded winds of 198 km/h on Oleron island and 194 km/h in Royan.
Toponymy The original village was called Agrifolio "medieval",J.M. CASSAGNE, Origin of names of Towns and villages, Editions Bordessoules, 2002, p. 8 demonstrating a forestry origin, whose traces in toponymy can be found elsewhere in many localities of the commune: Frace,meaning "undergrowth" or "young copse", in J.M. CASSAGNE, Origin of names of Towns and villages, Editions Bordessoules, 2002, p. 136 La Fragnée,meaning "ash forest", in J.M. CASSAGNE, Origin of names of Towns and villages, Editions Bordessoules, 2002, p. 136 La Taillée,meaning "a cut forest" or a "cleared forest", in J.M. CASSAGNE, Origin of names of Towns and villages, Editions Bordessoules, 2002, p. 312 Le Bois-Gaillard, Le Bois-de-la-Touche,meaning "copse left intact between two cleared areas", in J.M. CASSAGNE, Origin of names of Towns and villages, Editions Bordessoules, 2002, p. 319 Le Quéreux-Fresne.
The modern name of the city is derived from a logical linguistic evolution of the Latin acrifolium meaning "Holly". Actually the first houses of the original hamlet were built near a wood where there was abundant holly.
This forestry origin of the village also recalls that the old parish belonged to the ancient Forest of Argenson.Jean Glénisson, The Charente-Maritime, Aunis and Saintonge modern origins, Editions Bordessoules, 1981, p. 129 The Forest of Benon is a modern vestige of this forest.
In another indication, the name of the city originates from acid grass that are found in abundance on the peat land of the commune: "The ebb of the ocean allowed these plants to spread on the water. The decomposition of organic materials then formed a thick layer of peat on which grew a sour acid grass, and thorny leafed trees, hence the name of Aigrefeuille".J.L. Flohic, The heritage of communes of the Charente-Maritime (collective work), Collection Le patrimoine des communes, Flohic éditions, 2002, (Monograph of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis), Vol 1, pp. 41–44
History
Medieval Origins Although in Gallo-Roman times, a Roman road ran to the south of Aigrefeuille, no evidence of human occupation of this time was noted there. It was not until the period of the High Middle Ages that the first traces can be found. This Roman road was called "Le Grand Chemin" (The Great Way) and is well documented in the Table of Peutinger and archaeological excavations connected Angériacum to the current Saint-Jean d'Angely, which is the presumed site of the Port du Plomb at L'Houmeau via Muron and Le Thou.L.MAURIN, La Charente-Maritime – L'Aunis et la Saintonge des origines à nos jours – Editions Bordessoules, Saint-Jean d'Angély, 1981, p. 72 to 77