The best walks and hikes around Contré

Leisure park/pond with picnic tables, children's games, mini-golf course, tennis court and fishing permitted on certain dates only (see table at the park entrance)

Small village with lovely curiosities, sculptures... To discover!

The Aulany forest covers approximately 2,000 hectares, shared between Charente-Maritime and Deux-Sèvres. Composed mainly of oaks and beeches, it is home to quite rich flora and fauna. It was also one of the most remarkable beech forests in the region, before the storm of 1999. The massif, under reconstruction, is one of the Natura 2000 sites in Charente-Maritime. You can discover remains from the Neolithic period, particularly around Aulnay.

This church was dedicated to Saint Peter (Saint Pierre). Simon, nicknamed Petrus (rock), was a fisherman on Lake Genesareth when he - together with his brother Andreas - was called by Jesus Christ to be a "fisherman of men". According to the Catholic understanding he is the highest apostle, and the two millennia long line of popes - currently Francis - are in his successor. On statues and paintings Peter is almost always shown with two keys in his hand, this attribute refers to the Bible verse in Matthew: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; what you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you will loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven ”(Chapter 16, verse 19). Together with Paul, Peter is also known as the "princes of the apostles", their common feast day in the saints' calendar is on June 29th.

Very beautiful Romanesque church ... to see

The church is a must. She was a pilgrimage church on the way to Santiago. Here is a small impression from the impressive Wikipedia text: "A three-aisled hall church was built. Due to structural features, three construction phases are clearly distinguishable: The transept is characterized by uneven exterior walls. Only the southern transept has its own portal, whose jewelery figures are arranged radially. This portal and the east side in total have a rich figure decoration. The capitals feature figurative as well as vegetable decorative elements, often in Celtic style. The nave is outwardly structured by blind arcades. The capitals in the interior have floral motifs and masks as décor. Between the construction of the nave and the choir therefore a - not exactly to be taken - temporal distance is assumed. The third construction phase was a plan change that was made during the ongoing construction of the nave: The originally planned four yokes was presented a fifth to the west. This can still be seen today on both the south and the north wall on the remains of the foundations already made a west facade as the conclusion of the fourth yoke. The completion and consecration of the church is assumed around 1170. " https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Pierre_(Aulnay)