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Holiday Villas Charentes & Holiday Chateaux Charentes

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Deux-Sèvres | Vienne | Charente-Maritime | Charente

Deux-Sèvres

Those early rowing lessons on a British boating lake could come in useful in the Deux-Sèvres, the best place from which to explore the Marais Potevin, a huge protected natural park, part land, part water, known as the ‘Green Venice’. At Coulon, the kind of postcard-picture village that always makes you wish you had a camera, you can hire a rowing boat or, better still, a pigouille, the nearest thing in France to an Oxbridge punt, steered, when you get the hang of it, by means of a long pole. Or you could buy a half-day fishing permit to enter the reserve of Pescalis, with its deafening chorus of frogs, and if the fish look a little cocky here, that is because any you catch must immediately be put back.

The rural theme continues at Vasles, with its Moutin Village, a collection of 23 kinds of sheep and an indefatigable sheepdog that rounds them all up. Then to a garden more fantastic than rural at Pougne-Hérisson, where the stories gathered by the village blacksmith Robert Jarry have been brought to life in exotic artefacts, recalling the medieval times when troubadours gathered at Pougne-Hérisson to exchange their best material. No doubt they were paid in silver coin hewn in the mines of Melle, the oldest silver mine in Europe that can still be visited, used by the Carolingian kings from the 5th to the 10th centuries. Thanks to its positioning on the pilgrim’s road to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. Melle was a wealthy town with three surviving Romanesque churches, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Savinien and the best, Saint-Hilaire.

Also not to be missed is Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet, a waterside village that was once a hive of industry and feverish activity in its mills and tanneries. It has a charming château with an exceptional garden and fruit trees too numerous to count. At Saint-André-sur-Sèvre stands the Château de Saint-Mesmin, a medieval fortress dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries; and at Oiron, a beautiful 17th century château, the southernmost of that magnificent group of castles within a day’s ride of the valley of the Loire.

Vienne

The Vienne is infinitely capable of confusion, it being simultaneously the French way of saying Vienna, a town in the Rhône-Alpes in southwest France, and what we mean here, a département in the Charentes with the city of Poitiers at its centre.

Poitiers, built on a promontory between the rivers Cain and Boivres, is often wrongly remembered as where the Christians finally halted the advance of the Moors in AD732. In fact the battle took place further to the north after the Moors had already taken and sacked Poitiers, which suffered further damage during the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion. However, many of its best half-timbered buildings survived and can be seen in the narrow streets of the Vieille Ville. The 12th century cathedral, the aptly named Notre-Dame-la-Grande with its magnificent carved west façade, is surrounded by pedestrianised streets, an excellent area for shopping.

North of Poitiers is Futuroscope, a highly popular theme park of 20 different screens at the cutting edge of cinematic technology. It offers half-dome, full circle, high resolution and audience participation theatres, one even with a projection beneath your feet. The show reaches a climax outdoors with a laser-orientated firework display. Nearby lies Châtellerault, a friendly little town whose grand Henry IV bridge spans the Vienne. The whole area is full of delightful villages, including Leigné-les-Bois and the small spa of La Roche-Posay.

The old town of Montmorillon, rising above the River Gartempe to the east, is a magnet for would-be or actual writers, as its narrow streets are full of shops encouraging the creative arts. Nouiaillé-Maupertuis is another town with a lovely riverside setting and an ancient abbey. The most attractive part of the Vienne however lies further south, where it winds its way through the river valley from Lussac-les-Châteaux to Availes-Limouzine.

Charente-Maritime

The Charente River runs on towards the unspoilt coast, the Charente-Maritime, where each night pine forests must creep a metre or two surreptitiously towards the sea. North of Royan you will find splendid solitude upon pale yellow sand; and to the south, a little further down the Gironde estuary, jostling crowds at the hypnotic little village of Talmont; its unique 12th century church enjoys a breathtaking site.

La Rochelle keeps the motorist out of its inner streets, allowing pedestrians to appreciate to the full the grand buildings that mark its past and, close by the harbour, to visit some fine marine museums that enhance its present. It is one of the most seductive seaside towns in France, rich in history and well-loved by painters; its fortified harbour surrounded by secretive arcaded streets is well worth exploring.

Saintes has a frenetic market in its narrow lanes flanked by medieval houses, and ruins that are a reminder that Roman rule reached furthest Gaul.

The fine pale sand beaches of Royan are impeccably clean; a short drive to the north will take you to wilder parts of the coast, mainly "la Grande Côte" where the beautiful unspoilt beaches are flanked by pine forests.

Charente

The Charente is cognac country, for many the very epitome of French life, where the great houses of Courvoisier, Hennessey, Martell and Rémy Martin distil their magnificent brandies. Cognac itself has far more to offer, grand houses and narrow winding streets; and more festivals than there are months in the calendar.

To the east stands Angoûlème, its very name a sign of sophistication, a prodigious cathedral the strongest hint of its affluent past. The Charente River gathers momentum near Saintes but it is never much more than a quiet waterway for those who delight in messing about in boats. Sleepy little towns like Jarnac seem to float by, followed by proud Romanesque abbeys and priories, silhouetted against the lush undulating countryside. Make sure you visit the churches at St Amand-de-Boixe, Bassac and Conzac

Restaurants apparently devoid of a local clientèle are still prodigiously busy, serving snails and marrons glacés, though usually not together, and Pineau des Charentes, a delicious fortified wine.

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