Legend has it that during his journey, Gargantua, a famous giant with an overflowing appetite, went as far as the Marais.
With long strides, he crossed the plains from East to West, leaning on the steeples and the hills. But the sticky peat weighed down his hooves, and he had to pick them up often, leaving behind him mounds of earth. Thus he created the mounds of Sainte Macrine and La Garette. But these long, incessant walks whetted his legendary appetite, and above all made him so thirsty that he swallowed the rivers with their boats and bargemen.
One day, exhausted, he sat on the bell tower of the church of Notre-Dame de Niort, one foot on that of Fontenay-le-Comte, the other on that of Luçon. His thirst was such that he gulped down all the water of the Sèvre and its tributaries, thus drying up the Marais all the way to the sea. But after having drunk so much, a pressing desire was not long in coming, and Gargantuase relieved himself in the western plains of Niort, giving birth to the Wet Marshes.
