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Discover / The river Vire / La Vire
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 The Vire finds its source at a place called Saint-Christophe-de-Chaulieu, on the fringes of the Orne, Calvados and the Manche. When its reaches Pont Farcy (Calvados) it has already covered 46km. Here it is tamed by the barrages set up in the nineteenth century to facilitate navigation. 70km downstream it empties into the Bay of the Seine near Isigny-sur-Mer.
In 1835 the Vire was declared navigable to shipping and between 1836 and 1861 navies set about opening up a canal. There were 14 mills between Fourneaux and les Claies de Vire. Horse-drawn butty-boats and barges plied the canal laden with bricks, lime, building stone, tiles and sand. The economic history of the town has long been inseparable from that of the river, the lifeblood of its many artisans – weavers, tanners, washerwomen…. With competition from the railways however, it was removed from the list of navigable rivers in 1926.
 Today instead of the bargees horses, it is hikers and walkers who ply the restored canal banks, along the old tow-path which starts out from the foot of the ramparts and leads to many a manor tucked away in the lush countryside. Leisure activities on offer are fishing, canoeing, kayaking, climbing, hiking, horse-riding, and cross-country biking. A succession of lock gates, lock-keepers´ cottages, fishponds and weirs greet the eye between Pont Farcy and Carentan, a path that follows the meanders of the Vire and the Vire-Taute canal over 66km, 50km of which have been restored.
The villages along the way can provide food and drink, accommodation and entertainment. Riverbank picnic areas allow the visitor to take a comfortable break along the way: just follow the wooden signposts and granite markers which indicate the directions and distances between villages and sites.
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