Just think that in early days, the Poitou dwellers were called the Pictons and our present coastline formed a huge gulf stretching south of Talmont, Luçon and Fontenay. Numerous islands then sprang up in the waters of the “Sinus pictonum”

The isle of Condate (Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm) became renowned for its Abbey built in 682 by Ansoald, Bishop of Poitiers. During the Carolingian era, Vikings settled at the mouth of the river Lay and seized this great monastery, spreading devastation throughout the whole region.

In the 12th century the Benedictines and the monks of Nieul-sur l'Autize, Maillezais, L'Absie and Saint-Maixent, undertook the drainage of the surrounding marshland. The "Canal des Cinq Abbés" keeps alive the memory of the five abbots who turned these marshlands into a more prosperous area.

The bay of l'Aiguillon, where the waters of four canals join those of the Sèvre Niortaise and the clear waters of the river Vendée, is what remains of the former gulf, while the river Lay ends its course between a long dyke and the strip of land known as the "La pointe d'Arcay".