HEMP CIRCUIT

From the museum of Vivoin, the Hemp Circuit stretches over 30 km and passes through all places suggestive of culture. In particular, it makes it possible to stop in farmers who have restored their oven or who have themselves known culture more than sixty years ago. Indeed, hemp, in Sarthe, is a culture, a tradition in particular the north of the department. People who have people today easily tell how they saw, forty-five years ago, their parents exploiting what has made Maine great: it was around 1865 that hemp cultivation reached its peak. The Sarthe is then the first producer department. Its production is mainly used for textiles, fishing nets, ropes and sails of the navy. Then, competing with cotton and synthetic fibres, this culture is declining. Since 1990, however, it has developed and produced, among other things, paper, fuel, medicines, textile fibres, cattle feeds, fertilizers, insulation products… Hemp ovens have been restored, thanks to the energy of a backup association. They are to rediscover with this circuit through the belmontaise campaign. Information and leaflet at the Tourist Office.