Attractions and Places To See around Brives-Sur-Charente - Top 20

This imposing holm oak is approximately 500 years old. We do not know if it was planted on the occasion of the birth of the future king of France François I in 1494, on the occasion of his coronation in 1515 or on the occasion of his death in 1547. What we do know, however, is that it measures 17 meters high with a trunk circumference of 5.5 meters. Classified as a “remarkable tree”, it was even elected “tree of the year” in 2014 by the National Forestry Office.

Cognac is a beautiful, wealthy town where the future François 1st was born (hence the house of the same name). This wealth comes mainly from the pineau and cognac trade… It was in the 15th century that this distillation process appeared to better preserve these wines which were sent throughout Europe and in particular to the countries of the Hanseatic League where this "burnt wine", brandevin or brandy is very appreciated, most often cut off from water. In Cognac, the Henessy, Rémy Martin, Courvoisier and Martell houses have numerous buildings. I also passed in a town next to an old building used as a cellar, a very pleasant smell emanated from it.

A particularity is located in the gallery of arcature which overhangs the portal. Indeed it has three arched windows on one side of the central window and two semicircular on the other. Note that the two bays on the right occupy the same width as the three on the left. The bell tower, like many others in the region, has a pyramidal roof. Simple columns come to partition the two windows which cover each face. Inside the church, archival documents prove that the nave with two bays was originally vaulted with warheads. Unfortunately, this vault was destroyed during religious wars. Still according to archival documents, it would seem that at the beginning of the 20th century, a narthex, where the catechumens were held, leaned on its facade. Today, it has completely disappeared. The church was classified as a historic monument in 1913. The building underwent a complete restoration in 1935. To admire just next to the church a magnificent and majestic period residence.

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

The port of Lys is a privileged place for walkers, hikers on foot or by bike, fishermen, boaters and water skiers. It is an ideal site for a shady stopover!

It was in the 12th century that the church of Saint Césaire was built. It is a Saintonge Romanesque style church.

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.