We spent seven days in late April house/dog sitting in a little town called Chapelle des Pots just ten minutes from the city of Saintes and loved how richly packed the Charente-Maritime region in Nouvelle-Aquitaine area is with so many historical, pretty little towns. Here are some of the highlights.

The Charente-Maritime area

Saintes sits in the north of the Nouvelle Aquitane region (the largest region in France) about 90 minutes north of Bordeaux. The district is called the Saintonage (named after a Gallic tribe called the Santones that used to live in the area) and it covers the Charente-Maritime region stretching to the west central Atlantic coast (Royan). Theres 2000 years of history packed into dozens of small – medium sized towns and a lot of focus on the emerald green Charente river which winds through most of the towns.

The area is famous for its pottery, glazed on the outside typically with a green glaze (see our Pot) called Saintonage Green. The most common item made were wine jugs – as the area also produces a lot of grapes which are turned in to Cognac and Pineau des Charentes

There are dozens of small and medium sized towns within an hours drive of La Chapelle des pots and we tried to visit as many as we could in our week-long stay in the area.

Many of these towns are part of the “Petites Cités de Caractère” which was formed in 2007 to recognise towns with character that have significant history and purpose and to encourage preservation.

La Chapelle des Pots – the pottery village

This was our little village and home for 7 nights in April as we minded a black lab called Benga – who took us for walks around her countryside to meet horses, donkeys, goats, hens, even a couple of coipyu nesting on the river – and to chase cats and avoid big dogs!

The town is named after the many pottery kilns that were built in the area to make the clay wine pots the area is famous for and glaze them with Saintonage green glaze I mentioned in the introduction. The town has a large ceramic jug in the park where an old kiln still stands at the base of the church.

Our house had the “chemin de la Fontaine”16^th century wash house, outside its front door and  the Fontenelles stream running through the backyard. We found similar stone wash houses in the area and they were a way to bring people together as they washed their clothes and bodies in the many streams that criss-cross the area.  La Chapelle des Pots has put together a series of hiking trails (marked with the spotted salamander ) that we took advantage of to walk with Benga each morning and evening. We hiked through vine crops, grassy verges, rivers, tiny roads and gravel paths accompanied by birdsong and sunshine. A very pretty base – from where we also explored the local villages and towns. The only services in town are a hairdresser, a small general store and a primary school.

Saintes – the capital of the Saintonage

This Gallo-Roman town is the capital of the region known as the Saintonage. It is the closest developed town (10kms) to our village and we loved walking the pretty cobblestone old town, marvelling at all the pretty cafes tucked in and around ancient monuments, the well-appointed shops in Rue Victor-Hugo, the grassy green walks along the Charente river and the great array of ancient ruins and monuments. There’s the amphitheatre of Saintes which is being restored and dates back to the 3^rd Century and old Roman thermal baths, as well as a huge sandstone Abbaye aux Dames in Place St Palais and the towering arch of Germanicus.

Angoulême a fabulous fortified town

This old fortified town perched on a rocky plateau overlooking the Charente river is famous for its art and culture. It has many animation and video game studios that produce half of France’s animated production. There’s colourful cartoon graffiti, shops, studios dotted all over the town which contrasts the solid grey and white stone ancient buildings. The Hotel de Ville has a beautiful garden that leads to a lookout over the lower parts of town and there’s the regular array of gobsmacking churches and cathedrals as well.

Royan – beach time on the Atlantic coast

Royan, 50 mins from Saintes and on the Atlantic coast, is a beach and boating town that has a long promenade for strolls along the seafront with a backdrop of old chateaus and hotels. There are many 12 – 13^th century Romanesque churches built out of the local limestone. It was pretty crowded when we tried to head into the seafront on a sunny Friday evening (many Bordelais have weekenders here) so we detoured to the nearby Plage du Nauzan (pictured)– which the guidebooks said was a lovely fine sand beach. There had clearly been some pretty big tides and all the sand had washed away leaving just a grey almost muddy layer behind and a lot of natural debris – twigs, leaves, logs, as well as some rubbish. Still, it was lovely to sit in the sun and we enjoyed a picnic of sparkling wine, cheese and cucumbers as the sun went down and kids played soccer on the sand.

Pons – packs a punch for Roman ruins

This little town packs a punch with many medieval structures from the 12^th and 13^th century. There’s the large rectangular 33 metre high ‘Keep of Pons’ also called the Donjon of Pons. A donjon is the inner tower of a medieval castle and often served as a dungeon as well. You can walk around the outer walls of the old Chateau de Pons – a castle originally built by Richard the Lion Heart – King of Aquitane but destroyed and rebuilt in the 17^th century by Henry the 1^st of D’albret. There’s a wide stone staircase that takes you down to the terraced gardens and river and if you follow the walls you’ll wind up back in the chateau gardens which feature topiary hedges cut in the shape of the old ramparts.

Niort – and its many medieval wonders

Another town stuffed with amazing mediaeval structures and pedestrian friendly narrow medieval streets to wander through. We entered through the Place de la Breche – a large and spacious park in the middle of Niort. There are cafes lined up around the edges of the park and we had a quick lunch of galettes at a delicious creperie that was beautifully decorated like a fancy restaurant inside. We then walked up to the the Niort Donjon which is all that is left of the medieval castle which, at its peak, was 700m long and had about ten towers. Part of the Donjon dates back to the 12th century, when construction was started by Henry II (Henry Plantagenêt) and finished by his son, Richard Leeuwenhart (Richard the Lion Heart).  The historic old town has many beautiful buildings including the 14^th century Renaissance style Pilori –  the former town hall that was used during the Middle Ages, to exhibit and shame lawbreakers locked in to a wooden pillory.  There’s also the Église Saint André – a medieval church with two high symmetrical towers.

Saint- Sauvent – old canals and gardens

This tiny town was undergoing a big makeover when we arrived on a cloudy April afternoon so we missed exploring the limestone main street but we were still able to climb up the little winding streets to the imposing church, with nice views back over the town and the streams. At the base of the town is an old  “medieval” garden over three terraces that is still used today as a communal vegetable and herb garden.  There’s also an old washhouse  the Font Bigot.

Saint Savinien – things of stone and water

This pretty town is part of the “villages of stones and water” network, a label initiated by the region to promote exceptional sites located at the edge of a body of water. Well there’s certainly a lot of homes lining the Charente river and almost falling in to it! There’s two parts to the town – the part along the river where there used to be an important river port in the 12^th century that ferried the limestone cut from the area. Its nice to walk along the river and admire the old houses. Then there’s the old town, perched on a limestone spur (probably to avoid flooding from the river) which has a Romanesque style Saint Savinien church with an impressive bell tower built in the 12^th century  and the very austere Augustinian Abbey.

Port d’ Enveaux rivers & Crazannes carvings

I have put these two towns together as they are linked by a 2km walking track making it easy to explore them both at the same time. The area is famous for its many quarries that extract a white limestone called “the Crazannes stone”. One of the old quarry sites (Chabossières) has become a living sculpture gallery – called Les Lapidiales where sculptures from all over the world are invited to add their work. It’s free to visit this site in between the two towns and well worth it to see the strange, often evocative carvings that have been added in the caves and across the walls over time.

You can park in an overnight rest stop in Crezannes and walk to the Crazannes Castle – which was sadly closed when we visited in late April – apparently it doesn’t open until May. And you can also walk along a forest track 2km to Port d’Envaux, which as its name suggests is a little village which used to be an important port on the Charente river and now has a river beach and park.

Taillebourg – a tangle of tiny streets

We drove through the teeny tiny narrow streets of Taillebourg almost running over the front door steps of the houses that line the road and never found a place to park to explore but did see a campground at the start of town and signs to a green park which has the remnants of an old castle ensconced inside. Worth a stop – if you can work out where to park your car!!

Cognac – deliciously stylish

This rather well established town was our ’service town’ for grocery shopping as only 15 mins away. We did enjoy a nice walk around as well admiring the Cognac houses and beautiful buildings. We loved the public garden which has a beautiful old chateau in the middle and blossoming spring gardens. The green Charente flows through here as well which you can view from the bridge as pictured.