The Grande-Champagne mainly depends on cognac production and related business, such as barrel making and printing. The area is predominantly rural.
Its 27 communes, radiating from the ‘capital’ Segonzac, lie along an ancient north-south route and the area suffered greatly during the Hundred Years’ and Religious Wars. Segonzac was a stronghold for the ideas of the Reformation even after the Edict of Nantes.

The vast 19th-century Protestant Temple still stands, with its interior furnishing intact.
Other historical buildings include water mills at Ambleville and Criteuil-la-Magdeleine, windmills on the hilltops, stone quarries at Saint-Même-les- Carrières and stately 17th- and 18th-century mansions. In the villages, you’ll see old washhouses, wells and elegant stone houses with courtyards and finely carved gateways, evident signs of the wealth generated by the cognac trade.

These days, modern craftsmen live here, specialising in quality saddlery, barrel making and other essentials for the local economy… not to mention the vintners, proud guardians of the cognac tradition, who venerate the golden liquid almost as if it were a living being.
The Maison de la Grande-Champagne in Segonzac is run by 30 winegrowers; open all year, it displays local cognacs and how they are made. Each day, different growers take their turn to show off their products for you to taste or take home.

You can explore the area on foot, horse or bicycle, along marked footpaths over the hills as far as the Charente river. A rambler’s guide is available at tourist offices and Syndicats d’Initiatives of the Pays du Cognac.