The best traffic-free bike rides around Bassac

Château Saint-Martial de Jarnac is an elegant neo-Renaissance-style residence, built between 1882 and 1884 for Maurice Laporte-Bisquit, a cognac merchant and mayor of Jarnac. Its main façade is organized around two polygonal towers and a central H-shaped plan; the facades are decorated with ceramic panels, a tribute to the founding family. The château boasts a majestic stone staircase with a wrought iron railing, large reception rooms adorned with woodwork and gilded stucco, and a landscaped park. The building served as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the First World War and later became a home for art collections. Listed as a historic monument in 2014, the château now houses guest rooms and remains a testament to the prestige of cognac houses during the Belle Époque.

The Château des Chabannes in Jarnac was built at the end of the 19th century for Baptiste Vert, then a cognac company manager. It is distinguished by its vast terrace offering a panoramic view of the Charente River and a garden featuring a pond and a rockery pierced by grottoes. The château's architecture, composed of a central building, two rectangular wings, and pavilions with round towers, reflects the tastes of the time and the importance of the local cognac houses. The architectural details are particularly elaborate: stone balustrades, a south-facing gallery, sculpted friezes, and a prominent winter garden that accentuates the refinement of the ensemble. This residence, surrounded by a park sloping down to the river, bears witness to the prestige of the region's cognac merchants during the Belle Époque.

Feet in the river to cool down

HISTORY BOURG GRAVES SAINT AMANT Like its neighbor Angeac, the parish of Saint-Amant-de-Graves was a dependency of the seigneury of Vibrac. During the Revolution, the commune of Saint-Amant-de-Graves was provisionally called Amant-Charente. On January 1, 1997, the commune of Graves merged with that of Saint-Amant-de-Graves which then took the name of Graves-Saint-Amant. HISTORY CHURCH GRAVES SAINT AMANT The village of Graves is home to a parish church, the Saint-Martin church built in the 12th and 15th centuries. The latter contains in particular a mural painting (main shades red and yellow) dating approximately from the 15th century apparently representing a biblical scene (restored in 1977), which is classified as a historical monument as an object. The church has been listed as a historical monument since 1986. The church of Saint-Amant was given in 1124 by the Bishop of Angoulême, Girard II, to the Abbey of Savigny, who gave it to the priory of Bouteville. The latter kept the parish until the end of the 15th century. In 1460, Saint-Amant was the seat of a priory of its own. Unfortunately, the Wars of Religion were detrimental to it, and it was suppressed in 1580. The church of Graves, which formerly depended on the archdeaconry of Saintes, occupies a picturesque site on the left bank of the Charente. It forms a long rectangle in plan. The nave is composed of a long single bay under a barrel vault, originally Romanesque, but rebuilt at a later date. A square bay under a bell tower follows it. It is vaulted with ribbed liernes. A similar bay, whose vault bears a large, crude shield as a keystone, forms a choir with a flat chevet. Its axial bay is slightly offset to the north. The façade, high under an obtuse triangular gable, bears a cornice with modillions decorated with animals and human masks. The portal has two bare semicircular arches, separated by a chamfered joint cover with large sculpted flowers. The capitals of the side columns have been redone. Between the top of the portal and the level of the pediment, four large stone corbels once supported a canopy. Below, an enigmatic relief, probably late, shows a bearded face between the sun and the moon. The side walls have flat buttresses ending in glacis. They show that the nave, before its renovation, had two short bays. The bell tower is a beautiful piece of architecture. It has a bare base and an openwork floor with two semi-circular bays on each side. A spiral serves it in the southwest corner. Its bays were once separated in two by a small column that supported a small monolithic bare tympanum notched with two arches, and surmounted by a circular opening. This arrangement has been partially preserved. The exterior of the choir has bays from the end of the 12th century, and others probably after the Wars of Religion. Furniture: in the north wall of the bay under the bell tower, a painting shows a kneeling donor on the left, three figures against a background of yellow and red flowers, and, on the right, a priest saying mass near a kneeling altar boy. Despite the state of wear, which has made the inscriptions accompanying the scene illegible in particular, one can see the "Mass of Saint Martin", patron saint of the church. On the north wall of the choir there is another painting showing several scenes from the Passion: Jesus in the Garden of Olives, the arrest of Christ, Christ before Pilate, and the flagellation. These paintings are late, popular in style and somewhat naive.

You can even rent canoes there to discover the Charente river in a different way.

Magnificent

Not yet fully developed on Komoot, so we only recorded part of the route, but the reality of our vacation is that we did the bike flow, from Angoulème to Ile Madame with our 11-year-old grandson at the rate of 50 km/day and that I can only recommend! Very nice hike, varied landscapes, pretty little villages, hotel campsites and frequent refreshments, a well-maintained path overall, everything to please!

A Romanesque church probably built in the 12th century.