Charente-Maritime is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.

Cities

Roman amphitheatre in Saintes

• 1 La Rochelle is a beautiful old harbour town.
• 2 Saint-Martin is the main town on Île de Ré, the beach suburb of La Rochelle.
• 3 Rochefort
• 4 Port-d'Envaux
• 5 Royan – a lovely town, bombed by the Allies in World War II, it has managed to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes to become a chic, very French, resort.
• 6 Saintes, a town with Roman monuments.
• 7 Saint-Jean-d'Angély
• 8 Surgères
• 9 La Tremblade
• 10 Talmont-sur-Gironde , one of the official most beautiful villages of France, located on a small promontory that dominates the Gironde estuary.

Other destinations

Chaillevette

• 1 Fort Boyard is the best known of the Napoleonic sea forts, as it's the setting for a long-running TV game show. Boat trips visit.
• 2 Île de Ré , an island right next to La Rochelle, with beaches and old towns, ideal for a bicycle trip.
• 3 Oléron , the second largest island on the French Atlantic coast with beautiful sandy beaches and pine forests.
• 4 Île-d'Aix , a small island next to Fort Boyard where cars are banned.

Understand

This beautiful area of southwest France was born out of the French Revolution. The two areas of Saintonge, based on the old Roman town of Saintes, and Aunis, based around the old Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle, were merged and Charente-Maritime was born. This is where the French themselves go on holiday because of the beautiful scenery, mild temperate climate combined with the luminous quality of the light (a painters haven) and almost 500 km of beautiful coastline.

Get in

Fly to La Rochelle (LRH ^IATA) or Bordeaux (an hour's drive from the southern Charente-Maritime), Poitiers.

Get around

Hire car.

See

Talmont-sur-Gironde

Many of the villages are steeped in history, man has occupied this land for a long time. At the southern tip of the region is the "Haute Saintonge". This special area is a bit like the land that time forgot. Some of the locals still wear their blue overalls and slippers for all occasions. The land glows with light and warmth. The houses with their Roman tiled roofs and their ramshackle outbuildings invite further investigation. The architecture is predominantly Romanesque. It is littered with fabulous churches, farms, wells, market halls. The ornamentation on the churches is awesome. Visit the church of Sainte Fortunata at St Fort sur Gironde and see the horses heads, or the church at Lorignac or Sainte Ramee. Grapes and sunflowers, as well as tobacco and maize, are grown here. Most villages have a local wine maker, some have several. 100 years before the revolution a wine producer had a moment of serendipity. He poured some grape juice into a seemingly empty cognac barrel. He forgot about it and rediscovered it a few years later. The nectar known as "pineau" was invented. This area has lots of pineau producers, you can visit most of them and of course taste the pineau.

Do

Visit the local wine producers and have a dégustation (wine tasting). Taste the wine, pineau, and, of course, the world-famous cognac houses. Hennesy, Remy Martin, Otard, Martell and others all have tours in English and French. Chateau de Beaulon is in the heart of the Haute Saintonge and you can visit the distillery in Lorignac as well as visit the chateau itself at St Dizant. There is a huge wetland park at Vitrezay where you can walk along the shores of the Gironde or round a series of lakes. The beaches are nearby. There are golf courses in the area. It is a ramblers paradise with miles of marked walks. There are thermal springs in Jonzac as well as Caribbean-themed indoor water sports (Les Antilles de Jonzac).

Eat

Plenty of waterside restaurants dotted around the small ports of Mortagne, Port Maubert, and Vitrezay plus many other restaurants ranging from humble €10 meals to haute cuisine. Melon au pineau is a speciality as is a whole range of seafood and the salt marsh lamb.

Drink

This is the land of wine, pineau, and cognac. Take your pick, you won't go far wrong. The vins de pays Charentais is quite a find. It was born out of necessity when the demand for grapes for cognac declined, but has been improving rapidly and is a perfect summer drink.

Go next

Visits to Futuroscope at Poitiers, wine museums, or the fabulous chic shops at Bordeaux are all under a two hour drive. The whole town preserved as a war memorial at Oradour-sur-Glane (in the Limousin) is just slightly further away.