Monuments to visit Poitou-Charentes

The Saint-Simon Hotel is the only Renaissance style monument in Angoulême. It is a special hotel built in the th century which became the possession of the family of Saint-Simon in the th century. Cross the porch and enter the small courtyard to admire the facade of this building, the pilasters are decorated with many geometric shapes. Watch every detail carefully, you won't be surprised by your surprises. Today, the Hotel Saint-Simon is home to Via Heritage, which promotes culture in Charente, which is no coincidence.

This visit is unique and reserved for those who get up early! Go to the fishing port well before the sun rises to visit the fish market. A guide will accompany you to discover how the fish is sold. As an observer, you will see firsthand the products that are usually found on the stalls of the fishmongers at the central market. It is also possible to witness the return of the ships or to learn how to lift the nets.

It is a bicycle tour, because the cycle path connecting the village to the rest of the island offers the walkers a unique panorama of this monument built in the Middle Ages by the religious of Saint-Michel-en-l 'Herm abbey. He had the origin of grasping grain through tidal-powered grinding. It also ensured maintenance of the channel by hunting the port's vase. In the nineteenth century, in view of the importance of salt production, the mill was used to wash white gold. All the buildings were then tied to the salt trade, the bridge to the residences of state officials and of course the salt factory that owned a high fireplace. Today, if he doesn't visit, there is still an essential step for cyclists taking the wooden bridge.

Impossible to miss: The fripon is in front of the church, slowing down the Thouet. Composed of five arches, whose three médianes are in full hanger and the other two broken arch, it was built in the th century. According to everyone, it is one of the most beautiful bridges in the Thouet, which is still lacking. Beyond the Thouet is a colombier, reporting the site of a former seigneury.

Mill of the th century where only one large wheel spinning three grinding. Hubert Maillet bought it in 1990 and restored it. Today, the people in the corner come with their walnut kernels to make oil at the mill.

The so-called Prince of Wales tower was built at the end of the th century. This building is part of the fortifications around the city, it also served as a door, a garrison housing and a grain warehouse. From the th century, this tower became a prison where faux, smugglers of salt were imprisoned. At this time, gabelle (salt tax) varies according to provinces (ten times cheaper from one region to another) involving significant traffic. In 1994, artists Angel Leccia and Jacques Old invested this place by performing two works of art. These enduring works, while testifying to current artistic practices, are a new challenge to the already long memory of this heritage. Angel Leccia's video installation has its place inside the wooden prisons in which the captives of the tower were once locked.

The dungeon, 28 metres high, is the last and smallest of the seven towers of the old feudal castle built by Richard Lion, the future King of England. At the top of the summit, you can find and see the chimneys of La Manu in Chatellerault and those of the Centrale, a bird's flight, 46 kilometres away! Within the castle walls, the th century Notre-Dame-des-Vergers chapel of the th century, a transitional ogival style with the half-slender shape, the emerging arches with all the details of Romanesque ornamentation. In the past, superb murals from the th to the th century represented the bucolic work of the twelve months of the year.