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Explore France Holiday Guides Charente-Maritime 2008-2009 Noble architecture in the Haute-Saintonge
| Noble architecture in the Haute-Saintonge |
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Stately churches and châteaux, fine farmhouses, marketplaces, manors and mills. Church at Mirambeau The Haute-Saintonge covers the southern part of the Charente-Maritime and has many fine examples of Romanesque sacred architecture. Among the painted friezes and frescoes there is even some ancient graffiti, in Moings church. Nine car itineraries show how to penetrate, in a day, the mysteries and symbolism used in the building of these churches and monuments. Ask the tourist office for the booklet ‘Promenades Romanes’.  Besides these holy masterpieces, windmills, dovecotes, covered markets, the typical ‘long’ stone farmhouses with adjoining cellar, square-plan farmhouses with central courtyards, bourgeois town residences, manors with fine furnishings and, everywhere, beautiful gardens are the area’s rich lay heritage. Just north of Saintes is the magnificent 15thcentury castle of La Roche-Courbon, restored by author Pierre Loti. The museum in the keep, the gardens and caves span 100,000 years of history. Stop at Pons to admire its château and hospital for pilgrims. And the Château de Montendre has a wonderful array of local costumes, tools and utensils of everyday life in the 19th century. Montendre the town also has an unusual octagonal covered market.  The valley of the Seugne is richly rural, a real patchwork of sunflower fields, meadows, vineyards and huge stretches of forest where you might spot the shy roe deer. The special leisure centre at the Étang Rompu, near Montendre, is a protected ecosphere of marshlands and rare plants, ponds and woodland planted with maritime pines. The Haute-Saintonge is a must for ramblers, with 80 signed circuits (ask for the Topo-Guides or see http://rando17.online.fr). Mountain bikers can ask for the booklet ‘Randonnées VTT’, while for anglers there is the ‘Parcours de Pêche’. 
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