Prochain point : lat="49.149279" lon="1.989118"
Panorama over the town of Marines and the plateau overlooking the Viosne valley
The name of the town of Marines is considered by some to come from "Marignes" meaning marsh, which is rather hard to imagine on this plateau. Others think it may be of Gallo-Roman origin, but there is no evidence of such ancient occupation in Marines. The hamlet of Hautiers with the remains of its feudal mound appears to be older than Marines, which subsequently developed around the church and the priory.
The landscape
From Hautiers, whose name evokes high ground, you can look out across the whole town of Marines, the former Silo to the south as far as the old tenant farm to the west, sweeping across to Lévrière farm, the château, the church, the Oratory, and the hospital-hospice. Beyond lies a vast open landscape: the plateau of French Vexin, dipping into the Viosne Valley and extending to the horizon as far as the slopes of the Seine...
Le Caillouet
Le Caillouet, a wooded hill overlooking the city of Marines is one of the high points of Vexin, 203 meters in altitude. Many springs and streams once ran down its slopes feeding the fountains, pools and washhouses below the hamlet of Hautiers. For many years gritstone was quarried from Caillouet hill and used to build houses and cover roads. The quarries have left the land pitted with holes.
The Virgin of Hautiers
Marines Church has a statuette of the Virgin, who has been venerated over the centuries. The town of Marines was relatively spared during the1939-45 war and to thank the "good mother" of Marines for her protection the faithful raised a statue to her in 1954, on the 10th anniversary of the Liberation. The statue stands at the entrance to Hautiers overlooking the town and was restored by the municipality in 2008.
Vineyards and orchard
Below Hautiers, a traditional meadow orchard was planted in 2000 with about sixty old regional varieties of fruit trees (apples, pears...). The fruit is harvested annually by the high school. A little higher up, at a place called "Le Clos Matelin" 200 vines produce Chardonnay, grown using organic methods and planted in partnership with the Natural Regional Park of French Vexin in 2012. They remind us that before the arrival of phylloxera in the late nineteenth century hectares of vineyards were cultivated in Marines.
