Aquitaine - So good we Returned to check it out

This was an area that we’ve passed through and stayed in on several occasions so it’s crammed with personal experiences of great family holidays. Like many parts of France it offers peaceful relaxing villages venues and we enjoyed this tranquillity alongside busy rural markets, some superb local food, great wines and of course the unique liqueurs of the region.

Angouleme is a short drive away from Cognac and the old town, clinging to the dominant hillside offers great views of the valleys of the Charent and Aguinne rivers from the "promenade des Remaprts." As it is on the convergence of two rivers we weren’t too surprised to learn that it has an old tradition in the paper industry—indeed French icons of Tintin and Asterix are still duplicated here in their thousands (in comic form obviously!). If you’re in to cartoons then Angloume’s the place to visit in January, as that’s the time of the "festival de la bande dessinee", but the rest of the year make sure you visit the museum dedicated to this art form. Angouleme’s 19th century Hotel de Ville is built on the site of an old royal palace but only a couple of towers remain of the 14th Century construction. I reckon St Pierre’s Cathedral is worthy of closer inspection—although originally built in 1128 it was heavily restored in the 19th Century—and its facade has 75 individually niched statues representing the Final Judgement.

Saintes is at the side of the river Charente and was an important centre for trade and culture in Roman times. There are some interesting Roman remains in the town including a massive amphitheatre built for to satisfy the bloodthirsty demands of the Roman settlement for gladiatorial combat. The narrow medieval streets and twice weekly market create a superb ambiance and like most Cathedrals in France there’s plenty on great architecture and stunning stained glass.

This region of France is renown as a "bit of a sun trap" so we enjoyed some superb weather alongside stunning scenery and we’re struck at how easy it was to avoid the crowds.

Quick Tips:

This area is renown for its spiritual content. But on this occasion I don’t mean religion, I mean the distillation of Brandy, the spirit of Cognac. It is only in this region that Brandy can be referred to as Cognac and there is no shortage of "Cognac experiences" to tickle you taste buds" and introduce you to the history of France. Most of the Cognac houses offer guided tours and a chance to tantalise your tonsils with a drizzle of the amber nectar. I’d recommend you check out the timings of the tours before you arrive because they are limited in numbers and some chateaux offer specialist tours by Nationality. You certainly will want to avoid a tour in a language that you’re not familiar with because you’ll miss so much of the story behind Cognac.

The Charente-Maritime is renown for its fresh fish dishes marinated in various alcoholic sauces and there are loads of restaurants to try. I’d strongly commend that you test the alcohol and see if you can spot the difference between Armagnac and Cognac. Personally we had fun trying but I found the difference hard to taste. Certainly a high quality Armagnac (a spirit made by single distillation outside of the Cognac territory) is in my opinion as good as a decent Cognac. Also make sure you try Pineau. This drink was first made in the small village of Burie when, in the mid-1500’s, a local wine maker poures new grape juice into a barrel containing a small quantity of Cognac. That was the end of the matter until the merchant re-discovered the barrel, sampled the liquid, enjoyed it and set about fermenting the stuff for real. Pineau de Charentes’ region is restricted and we tried both the white and rose. They’re great chilled as either an aperitif or a liqueur after an expansive meal. You’ll experience the sensations of the region in every lingering mouthful as the subtle flavours carefully caress your taste buds.

If you’re brave enough try l’anguille a la bordelaise (lamprey eels with a red wine sauce) or chaudree (fish soup) or if more conventional entrecote a la bordelaise (steak in a winey brown sauce with shallots or escargots (cooked in a white wine sauce with garlic and onions). The latter two I thoroughly enjoyed, but wasn’t up for the first two (let me know what you think!)

Best Way To Get Around:

Getting around this area can be very difficult without your own transport. We’ve always taken our own car across to France and found it to be a country that’s very easy to drive in. Although we’re right hand drive it’s never posed problems particularly if you make good use of mirrors and have a reliable "co-pilot." Generally we found parking in this region to be trouble free with some specially designated tourist parks and all well signed. If visiting the cognac houses there is no problem whatsoever as they are all set in decent grounds with plenty of free parking close to the reception / ticket office.

The French seem to love their cycling so there’s no shortage of bicycles around and if you fancy a leisurely ride down one of the many tow paths at the side of the rivers then most town’s have bike hire available.

As is my usual advice the best way to explore the towns is on foot. We always park up close to the centre of the old town and then "follow our intuition" to find the "syndicat initiative" or "office de tourisme" to request a local map of the town and the local environs. This strategy has never failed and often the person in the advice centre will give good tips as to where else we might head for in the region.

Public transport isn’t bad around the area and to get into the heart of this Atlantic Coast region is dead easy by fast trains from Paris and there are regular trains from the rest of the French regions. If you are a member of the "jet set" then you can fly into La Rochelle airport or the more accessible Bourdeaux.

This is marine territory so there are plenty of opportunities to take to the water either by chartered boats, pleasure trips or just a potter around in a small dingy around the shore’s edge. The odd river or two(!) gives you the option to hire barges for boating holidays.

Despite the options I’d still recommend a car as the best choice—but there again I like my creature comforts and the flexibility.

La Rochelle is a great town to explore with its commanding position on the Atlantic Ocean. It was first established as a fishing village back in the 10th Century when the majority of the area was marshland—La Rochelle was established on an island of rock. From here French colonials departed for the “new world” and La Rochellians were the founders of Montreal and from this point it became a major trading centre and seaport. Nowadays it’s a large city, and as long as you can ignore the modern high rise, there are enough of the old sights to savour.

So head for the town’s fortifications–there are over 5km of them with a total of seven original gates. Around the town centre we found, much to our delight, arch covered streets with the accompanying history. It wasn’t too difficult to imagine the busy port and the merchants peddling their exotic wares in the shadow of the arches. In places there was a monastic feel to the place, but visions of bawdy fishermen soon broke that train of thought! Shopping is virtually a pleasure around these streets and the old town is crammed with antique shops, galleries, up-market jewellery shops and designer-ware retailers. On Rue St. Nicholas, on Saturdays, there’s a Marche aux Puces (flea market) and it’s worth popping in just to experience the atmosphere that this generates.

But there are other things to see in the town including the busy fishing harbour (we missed out on the fish auction, but friends have told us this is well worth trying to get to), and a chance to spot some expensive pleasure crafts. Off the coast, if you're in to TV game shows, is the infamous Fort Boyard, which began life in Napoleonic times as a fortress, became a prison in the late 1800s and was redundant for almost a century before being used in the TV show.

With its marine heritage it wasn't surprising that they've got a first class aquarium spread over two floors and with massive well-presented tanks that with only a bit of imagination lead you to think that you're looking into the depths of the actual ocean. Apparently there are well over ten thousand species of "exhibits" to discover (but I'm afraid we didn't count!).

There's a good variety of museums in town including zoology, the history of ceramics, art, and the links with Canada and La Rochelle (if you're there for a time buy a ticket for entrance to all four—it's far the cheapest way). La Rochelle has a superb Hotel de Ville built in the 14th century with battlements and in an extravaggant Gothic style—the canopied staircase has to be seen to be believed.

It's worth visiting the three towers: de la Chaine, with its history of naval warfare; de la lanterne, built as a lighthouse but used as a jail; St. Nicholas, the oldest and offering great views of town.

Cognac is at the very heart of Brandy Making and it total there are seven different appellations for this typically French spirit: Borderies, Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Fins Bois, Bons Bois, Bois Ordinaire and Bois a Terroir.

We visited a couple of Cognac Chateax in Cognac at Otard and Camus and relived our experience of several years ago when our two young children disappeared from view as we approached the end of the tour. We weren’t overly concerned as the passageway led to a large reception area for a final tasting. As we briskly entered the room we heard titters of laughter around the room and then realised that our two boys were at the centre of this amusement – they were helping themselves to a drink or two from the glasses laid out on the table. Suffice it to say they’d gone for the five star "that’s my boys!" They’ve "flown the nest" now, but they’ve never abandoned those high expectations!

The town itself is medieval town and we had a great time wandering through attractive narrow cobbled streets lined with elegant properties with elaborate Renaissance façades. The Rue Grand has great half-timbered properties and the Maison de la Lieutenance has fascinatingly carved timbers dating from the 15th century. The rue Saulnier is a road sloping cobbled street which runs down to the River Charente with merchants’ townhouses on the route. This was designed for the ease of transporting heavy loads of salt—the main Cognac trade until Brandy took over!

There’s an all-pervading aroma in the town of the by-products of the main industry, brandy making, and it’s when we visited a cellar stacked with ancient oak casks that we became aware that the spirit permeates the very fabric of the buildings. For over three centuries the scent of Cognac, the "angel’s share" as it is poetically called, has wafted the streets and blackened the cellar walled with the "cognac fungus" as it is less politely referred to.

Although both distillers were making the same product they managed to suggest that they had the trade secret that made their product that bit more special. I think it was the Otard distillery that involved a short informative train ride with great visual graphics and a clear presentation in English. Remy-Martin’s trip includes a barge trip but that was extremely popular so we didn’t make that one—with hindsight we should have booked in advance. We passed in touching distance of oak casks dated in the Napoleonic Wars and Camus, with due reverence pointed out their oldest casks and their vintage brandies. The guides were really interesting and helpfully explained to me that Pineau was made by adding wine to 25% volume of Cognac after the distillation process had been completed, and that Armagnac was "lesser quality" brandy made by one distillation outside of the "precious" Cognac area.

A great town to explore and tickle your senses!

We’d no prior knowledge of Jarnac and “just happened upon it” as we were journeying from Poitiers to Cognac. We were in no hurry (France is not a place to tear around) and decided to stop off and investigate.

The town sits at the side of a gently flowing, almost static river, and we were surprised at the serenity of the town. It has plenty of history and was originally formed over 2,000 years ago, but being in a prime strategic position has been subject to many battles. The original castle was further fortified, in the 13th century, with ramparts and there are some remains of these around modern Jarnac. Its other claim to fame is that it was the birth town of President François Mitterrand and the family home is host to many of Mitterand’s presidential gifts.

You won’t be surprised to read that we called in at the Courvoisier chateaux for a guided tour. The doors don’t open until 11 and tours are also given in English—a great asset because my French is a little ropey. It’s a good audio visual tour, and with a €4 admission charge I don’t think we heard many complaints. A “gift” of a minature bottle of Cognac at the end of the tour made it even more palatable!

Courvoisier boasts the title of “le cognac de Napoleon,” as it in the early 1800s Emmanuel Courvoisier became a direct supplier of Brandy to Napoleon I, and when the emperor visited the warehouses in Bercy (1811) the relationship was consolidated. The story goes on to say that when he was attempting to flee the country he had his ship ladened with bottles of Courvoisier. He was forced to surrender to British forces and unsurprisingly they both discovered and sampled this precious cargo and thereafter referred to it as the “emperor’s cognac.” In 1869 Courvoisier became, by special appointment, supplier to the Imperial Court overseen by Napoleon III. I guess it earned its title!

As you wander the town keep an eye out for the Jarnac coat of arms “the Three Chabots" (a chabot is a bony large headed fish with spiny fins). I’m not sure what the locals thinks but over the years a Chabot has been used as a slang expression for a big headed, arrogant person. Perhaps that’s how the members of the original house of Chabot were viewed back in the 11th century.

On a blue skied summer’s day there were some superb walks along the river side meandering across the many bridges, past water mills, and alongside locks. If you fancy travelling a bit further then you can readily hire mountain bikes from Jarnac, perfect for negotiating the towpaths.

The Church St. Pierre has a superb 13th century crypt and if you fancy a guided tour of the town this can be booked at the tourist office. We preferred to mosey around stumbling upon the sights of the town as we went.

Poitiers is the original capital of Poitou and is well positioned on a hill overlooking two rivers (Clain and Boivre). We stayed out of town on a small well-maintained campsite at Vouille. This was in easy reach of Futuroscope, an interesting science amusement park, and Poitier, one of France’s oldest cities.

Futuroscope is about 8km away from Poitiers and at €30 admission fee gives a good value day out. If you’re wanting high speed roller coasters then this isn’t the place for you and I know that there’s been an expansion of the attractions since we last visited with almost a dozen new features being installed in the last 2 years. However the layout of the park remains much the same with the emphasis on moving images and gigantic screens and a variety of simulators. There are tremendous views to be had from the top of the gyrotower and the architecture of the park remains futuristic even after a decade.

Poitiers has been visited by some of history’s most remarkable figures including Joan of Arc, Richard the Lionhearted and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The city has some fantastic parks including the Parc de Blossac, which was originally laid out in the 1700s and restored to its former glory in 2001, the botanical gardens with a carefully restored greenhouse and a rose garden with over 9,000 specimens. These are both interesting and relaxing places to visit and ideal for picnics.

Poitiers is known as "the city of a hundred bell towers" as the town has 78 protected monuments, including Romanesque churches. There are picturesque medieval streets with well-maintained half-timbered houses, 19th-century boulevards alongside the modern world’s contribution of tastefully integrated contemporary architecture. We started our wander round the city from the highest and most scenic place in town. Known as the Dunes we were treated to fascinating views over the medieval roof tops out over the surrounding valley. What better way to orientate yourself! Heading back down into town we followed the "Chemin de Notre Dame" which, if you follow the blue line on the pavement’s edge takes you to all the major monuments and through Poitier’s oldest street. If you "do the whole route" it’ll take you a good 2 or 3 hours, but we got distracted and never did complete the circuit. The 4th-century Baptistery (one of the oldest Christian buildings in France) and the beautifully renovated Romanesque church of Notre-Dame-La-Grande helped in this delay.

We didn’t have time to check out the museums but there’s a range of them ranging from Pre-historic, Roman, through to modern art galleries. Of course there’s always shopping and Poitiers doesn’t serve half measures when it comes to retail therapy! And if that isn’t enough Poitiers is perfectly placed for day trips to investigate the region with loads of decent restaurants and bistros to choose from.