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beautiful passages along the Charente with pretty monuments and small waterfront cafés in Port d’Envaux and Saintes.

Courcoury is a natural island surrounded by the Charente and Seugne rivers, giving it a unique landscape setting between marshes and waterways, conducive to biodiversity and outdoor activities. It is also the only village in Charente-Maritime to have been awarded 4 stars by the "Villes et villages étoilés" label, recognizing its efforts to reduce light pollution through intelligent and environmentally friendly public lighting.

The Gallo-Roman amphitheater of Sainte, also called the Arena of Saintes, is an elliptical monument built between 40 and 50 AD, probably during the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius. It measures approximately 126 meters by 102 meters and could accommodate between 12,000 and 15,000 spectators, making it one of the largest and oldest amphitheaters in Gaul. Located in a natural valley called the "Arènes valley," it takes advantage of the topography to limit construction work, with stands backing onto the hill. The site has two monumental gates, the "Gate of the Living" to the east and the "Gate of the Dead" to the west, and has been the subject of a major restoration project since 2021 to preserve this exceptional heritage. Accessible on foot from the city center, it offers an immersion in Roman history with an educational trail and activities for families

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!

The Saint-Pierre Cathedral is located in the heart of the old town on the left bank of the Charente. According to tradition, the founding of this episcopal see goes back to Saint Eutrope. The construction of the first Christian building on the site of the current cathedral could not be dated with any precision. It probably dates back to the 6th century.

The Basilica of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes is a true masterpiece of Romanesque art and amazes with its two superimposed choirs and its crypt, one of the largest in Europe.

The parish church of Rétaud, dedicated to Saint Trojan, the fifth bishop of Saintes, was built around the middle of the 12th century (from 1140 to 1150) by the chapter of Saint-Eutrope of Saintes. It consists of a nave of three bays formerly barrel-vaulted, a fourth bay (completely rebuilt in the 15th century) above which rises an octagonal bell tower, and finally a choir ending in an apse in a hemicycle, vaulted in a cul-de-four. The apse is lit by five windows inscribed in semi-circular arcades. The church of Saint-Trojan was attacked during the Wars of Religion. Its bell tower has been put in a state of defense and some windows, partially blocked, still show the loopholes. It has been classified as a historic monument since 1862.

This building has three distinctive phases which illustrate the medieval transformations. From a first Romanesque construction there remains a section of wall with a small blocked bay and vestiges of the cornice with cornices on the first bay to the north of the nave as well as an arch and two bases of leaning columns on the facade. The beginning of the Gothic is visible to the north and east. On the north side, a very beautiful twin bay, with narrow lancets, still has semicircular arches inherited from the Roman Its foliage decoration evokes the beginning of the 18th century. The apse bay, in third point, already has tracery and testifies to a later phase. In the attic, traces of arches on the walls prove that the 13th century vaults were higher than those of today. In the 15th century, the building was taken over, retaining only these few sections of walls. The new construction, more homogeneous, appears as a rectangle supported, on each corner and on the long sides, by powerful buttresses. It is covered with ribbed vaults with prismatic ribs and emblazoned keys. The facade opens with a flamboyant Gothic portal, with an archivolt with hooks and fleurons, and its gable is crowned by a small quadrangular bell tower. Pointed arch bays, with flamboyant tracery. The north wall is representative of the three stages of construction of the building: the west bay is partly Romanesque, the east bay dates from the 13th century and the middle from the 15th century, while to the south the wall is consolidated by powerful buttresses. At the very end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century, they wanted to open a side chapel on the first bay which was never continued, as the waiting stones show. On the reverse side of the facade, the bell tower required the construction of powerful massifs between which is placed a gallery covered with a long vault pierced by a large oculus. In Saintonge where Romanesque churches are the majority, this church is one of the rare examples of accomplished Gothic construction.