サン・レジェ周辺のアトラクション＆必見スポット - トップ20

I really enjoyed this ride. I’m 46, I did it on a 40 year old road bike, it’s more suited to a cyclocross bike!

You can also spend a night at the Saint James House B&B, quality guest rooms, swimming pool and view of the Donjon 🙂

The keep of Pons is located in the commune of Pons in the French department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. This tower is the old keep of the castle of Pons. 33 m high, it is visible from a long distance and is the symbol of the city. With the Saint-Gilles chapel, the remains of the ramparts and the main building, it constitutes the remains of the ancient castle of Pons.

Certain foundations of small elongated freestones bear witness to a building from the end of the 11th century or the beginning of the 12th century. The nave was taken over in the second half of the 12th century and reinforced by arcades. If the base of the bell tower is characteristic of Romanesque architecture, its upper part bears the mark of the first Gothic age. The octagonal stone spire crowns a bell chamber based on a similar plan, the sides featuring alternating single bays and twin bays. Finally, the north wall and the facade were redone in the 19th century, the first bay of the nave having been shortened in order to widen the road passing in front of the church41. Like the majority of churches in the region, the Saint-Pierre de Gémozac church is based on a plan in the shape of a Latin cross. It consists of a single nave with four bays covered with a pointed barrel vault, which was completely redone in the 16th century. Inside, arcades respond to the buttresses and serve to reinforce the structure of the building. As in some Romanesque churches in the region, the transepts are covered with cupolas. However, if the north brace has a dome on squinches, the south brace has the particularity of having a dome on pendentives. The two arms of the transept are extended by apsidioles: the oldest (12th century), that of the south transept, forms a vaulted hemicycle; the most recent is a rectangular chapel covered with ribbed vaults. A narrow arcade opens onto the first bay of the choir. This forms a set of two spans. The first is covered with quadripartite warheads, while the second is completed by liernes. The flat apse (13th century), pierced with a triplet, testifies to the Cistercian influence on the architecture of the time. The church of Saint-Pierre de Gémozac is part of the tourist inventory of the most beautiful churches of Saintonge and is often cited among the religious buildings worthy of a visit. In certain aspects, this church is indeed one of the beautiful Romanesque churches of the Saintonge type, among which are still the remarkable churches of Rétaud, Rioux or even Thaims, all located in its canton.

The Church of Saint-Martin de Coucoury was built around the 11th century. It is a pretty example of a Romanesque church.

For people with a head for heights, it is worth climbing the 30-metre-high tower. There is also a museum in the building. It is one of the 'Monument historique' in France.

The church of Saint-Pierre de Gémozac is a composite style religious building which incorporates both a Saintonge Romanesque structure and Gothic elements. It is one of the few churches in the region bearing witness to the transition between the two styles and has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1910.

The church of Coucoury, built along a Roman road, succeeded older sanctuaries of which only a few traces remain. It is dedicated to Saint-Martin. Most of the single nave building that exists today dates from the second half of the 12th century. Outside, the apse is the most remarkable element; it is limited, on either side, by two buttresses and divided, by two semi engaged columns, into three parts each pierced with a semicircular window. The whole is unified by an elegant border surmounting the windows and connecting them to each other. This very simple harmony is completed by a modillion cornice. On the south wall, the elevation of the nave has preserved fragments of a facing of small cubic rubble and traces of windows, witnesses of an older construction (11th century). This wall is pierced by three Romanesque windows. The square bell tower is massive. It is covered with a four-sloped, almost flat roof, and has two of its faces with beautiful twin Romanesque windows. At the end of the 15th century a chapel was added on the north side. Finally, the western facade is much more recent; indeed the nave, lengthened by nine meters in 1770, ends with a classic facade of fairly good quality with its bosses and its pediment. We can regret the elevation of this new facade in the 18th century because it deprives us of the 12th century facade. You enter the church through a bare door surmounted by a rectangular bay and an imposing triangular pediment (late 18th century). Inside, the nave – high, quite large and without side aisles – is lit by five pierced semicircular windows pierced in the 18th century. The stained glass windows were made in 1869. The walls, in exposed rubble, reveal breaks in the structure, which makes it possible to distinguish the constructions of the Romanesque period from those of the Classical period. In particular on the south wall where you can still see the walled bays of the first Romanesque building (11th century). On the left as you enter: an original stone baptismal font, made up of two twin basins and engraved with eight crests bearing the names of priests. These baptismal fonts date from the 17th century. At the other end of the nave: a stone pulpit dating from 1876. It is a very beautiful Romanesque church in the Saintonge countryside where the centuries have mixed styles for the greatest pleasure of the eyes.