Our passions of everyday
Come and share our passions of everyday! Everyday at Marcanterra Sea Ranch, we are celebrating the quest of harmony between man and nature, through activities focusing, since 1923, with passion and measure, on a exceptionally well preserved territory of over 2500 acres, on the border of the Bay of Somme and its reserve naturelle.
What is 'Marcanterra Sea Ranch' about?
Come and share our passions of everyday...
Marcanterra Sea Ranch is, of course, a holiday destination, but it is also a place where to share, where to meet people passionate about what they do:
- Horse-breeders and outdoor horse-riders
- Nature guide and game manager
- Forest manager and wild plants gardener
- Inhabitants of a village which is the quintessence of the Picardy Coast, between land and sea
And help visitors discover about the secrets of a life close to nature.
At Marcanterra Sea Ranch, it's about sharing life, not only enjoying the beauty of an oustanding place.
Marcanterra Sea Ranch renews a tradition ...
People of the country have a tradition of receiving their cousins of the city, to bring them back to thousands of little pleasures of an authentic and simple life in harmony with nature and seasons.
It is a tradition perpetuated from the middle of the 19th century in the United States, with the 'dude ranches', receiving town people in love with nature in large estates devoted to breeding, wild fauna and forest.
We wanted to resurrect this tradition in Europe, especially here in Picardy, where man has been cohabiting with nature for thousands of years...
- creating wonders of crafts and techniques regarding breeding, gardening, sea-side farming, hunting, forestry
- celebrating their quest of harmony in thousands of opportunities of art de vivre and discovery. In one word, a true 'culture of nature'
Why Marcanterra Sea Ranch? Don't you think it's again a cultural invasion from the United States?
We would have loved being able to find a French name to designate our destination... But let's not forget we live more and more to the pace of Europe, and therefore hosting international visitors with whom to communicate in an universal language.
How to define this place giving a true feeling of its immensity and outstanding beauty?
Marcanterra Sea Ranch has four unique features :
- 2500 acres of wooded sand dunes, free from any urbanization, on the border of a reserve naturelle of 8000 acres, jewel of one of the most beautiful bays of the world: the Bay of Somme...
- The wildest part of a coast line of 13 miles long, with no road access or urban civilization, totally unique all over Northern France
- A ranch of over 200 horses; moreover a new horse breed, emblem of the Cote Picarde - the Henson horses - which is their birthplace
- On the border of one of the major bird sanctuaries of Europe: the Ornithological Park of Marquenterre ...
It was also about giving the feeling something exceptional was happening here between man and nature, since 1923, time of the acquisition of the estate by the Jeansons Family and has never been disclaimed in over 80 years...
The term 'sea ranch' - ranch on the border of the sea - appeared to us as being the most adequate to tell what we live here daily, perpetuating a tradition that has crossed times... for a thousand years. Because in reality, this is the story of the Marquenterre region -the sea in the land- that is being told here.
The story of this land won over the sea has always been the one of cross-influences: Celts, Romans, Francs, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, English, Spanish...
At the time of Europe, Marcanterra Sea Ranch claims being the confluence between the North and South of this continent...
Besides, isn't it the very quintessence of Picardy to be the crossroads of meeting between the Roman World and the Northern World, echoed by this land of gothic cathedrals where the roman arch has stretched towards the sky, as the pitched-roof houses of the Northern countries?
Combining a latin and an english word, Marcanterra Sea Ranch perpetuates the tradition...
In addition, there are, to our knowledge, only four 'Sea Ranches' in the world: two in America (California and Florida), one in Asia (Hong-Kong) and one in Pacific (Hawai).
So we're extending the history on the old european continent...but it's always the same idea of a meeting between man and nature..
What can we do at Marcanterra Sea Ranch?
People are coming...
- to relax...
- to share the life of the people who live there...
- to find again the taste of simple and authentic things...
- to fill themselves up with the tranquillity of a magical place, result of the passionate cooperation between man and nature...
And also...
- to ride horses of course or go for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage
- to discover the hidden side of the sand dunes accompanied by a nature-guide
- to be told the story of Marcanterra and its forest secrets, its wild animals or its magical plants...
- or, just simply, to taste the local flavours and do nothing while listening to the silence...
As well as...
- to discover the village of Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont,
- to meet other passionate people, fond of photos, watercolours or snail breeding, who settled there and are waiting for you to come...
- to take a bike and groove the minuscule trails of the Low Lands, the one of the Froises, of the Land of Tourmont...and fall for the magic of the hinterland and its reed beds...
- to discover the work of the mussel breeders on the foreshore...
And why not?
- Hunting
- Come for a seminar
- Have a big family reunion or among friends
- Take part in the work in the fields
- Discover the secrets of the Henson horse breeding and participate in the breaking in of a 3-year old foal!
Then, if you have any time and/or energy left...
- Drop by the Gardens of Valloires or the Maison de l'Oiseau just a couple of miles away
- Tour Saint-Valery or the Crotoy, the two main towns of the Bay of Somme
- Make a pilgrimage to the Chapel of the Holy Ghost in Rue or
The story of Marcanterra Sea Ranch, it's a love story...
At the time when everyone is wondering about the destiny of our planet...
Knowing that there is, so close and so far away, a magical place where man has decided to always live in peace with nature, to harvest its fruit cleverly in order to make its future sustainable...
And to live our passions within a kind of Noah's Ark always maintained.
This is the sharing we offer at Marcanterra Sea Ranch...
To live holidays that don't look like anything else and have only one wish...to come back...
Welcome to Marcanterra Sea Ranch!