Les Marais Audomarois — Floating Market Gardens
Just minutes from the town centre, the Audomarois marshes spread across 3,700 hectares of waterways, willows and improbably flat vegetable plots that have been cultivated by boat for over a thousand years. This is a UNESCO-recognised landscape and one of the most quietly extraordinary places in northern France.
Exploring by boat or on foot
The classic way to experience the marais is by hiring a flat-bottomed bacôve from the boat station at Clairmarais or Salperwick and paddling through the watergangs — the narrow channels that divide the floating gardens. The silence is total except for coots, herons and the occasional splash of a water vole.
Guided boat tours depart from the Maison du Marais at Clairmarais and give you the history of the market gardeners — maraîchers — who still tend their plots using techniques virtually unchanged since the Middle Ages.
Wildlife and seasonal highlights
The marshes are an Important Bird Area, with kingfishers, bitterns, marsh harriers and great white egrets all resident or passing through. Spring and early summer, when the willows are lime-green and the ditches are full of yellow flag iris, is the most photogenic time to visit.
The surrounding bocage also shelters otters, and local guides know the best spots to sit quietly and wait for one to appear at dusk.
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