The best walks and hikes around La Clisse

Leckeres Land Restaurant and Hotel, good regional cuisine. Hikers welcome. The lunch menu is a real recommendation, but you should reserve - especially with groups.

Set in a poetic fairground universe, the carousel is an extraordinary hands-on carousel that utilizes the senses of touch, hearing and sight. Under a dome of silver mirrors are giant digital musical instruments: a harp, percussion, keyboards and even vocal cords. Participants choose an instrument with which they would like to experiment, and as the carousel spins, they collectively create a score that is played in a grand final performance.

The Abbaye-aux-Dames is built around the church of Sainte-Marie, built in the twelfth century. Famous for its facade and its characteristic "pinecone" bell tower, it is one of the emblematic monuments of Saintonge's Romanesque art. After several wars and fires, the place was restored in the 1970s and 1980s and is now a hotel. When you walk through the long corridors you feel like you have been transported back to the time when the abbey was still alive.

The Basilica of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes is a true masterpiece of Romanesque art and amazes with its two superimposed choirs and its crypt, one of the largest in Europe.

A former Benedictine abbey created in 1047, Abbaye-aux-Dames was the first women's monastery in Saintonge. These powerful women were nuns, that is to say, nuns living cloistered and having taken a vow of piety, occupying their lives in contemplation. They carried the crosier, in other words the pastoral staff of a bishop, and minted coins. Richly endowed, the abbey carried its influence well beyond the borders of the county and over time it became one of the most powerful women's monasteries in all of South-West France. With up to a hundred nuns at its peak, it was entrusted with the mission of instructing young girls, often from the French nobility, and counted among its most illustrious residents the future Marquise de Montespan, favorite of Louis XIV. The Abbaye-aux-Dames is structured around the Sainte-Marie church, built in the 12th century, famous for its facade and its characteristic “pine cone” bell tower. The premises were restored during the 1970s and 1980s and now house a Cité de la musique in which the Saintes Festival dedicated to classical music takes place each year. You can also stay in a wing of the building, the cells having been converted into hotel rooms, and leave your bike in a secure room.

The interest aroused by this church is concentrated on its façade. It has on the ground floor a semicircular portal framed by two false doors of the same height, with pointed arches. On the large arcade of the vast central window which intersects the cornice develops the allegory of the Wise Virgins and the Foolish Virgins. Groups of columns separate the windows, others furnish the extremities of the facade. Above, a cornice decorated with scrolls and foliage rests on highly ornate corbels. Founded in the 2nd half of the 12th century, the current church was built in 2 stages: first the transept, surmounted by a bell tower, and then the choir. Then, towards the end of the 2nd ½ of the 12th century, the nave was barrel-vaulted and the western facade built. The primitive chevet was ½ circular. It was rebuilt in the 17th century, a flat Gothic wall, pierced by an ogival window, replacing the original apse. From the entrance, there is a massive wall pierced by a high and narrow door which, by 5 steps, reaches the nave. This narthex is lit by 2 semicircular windows. It is covered at great height with a starry ribbed vault. The nave comprises six bays, the first 3 vaulted in warhead with sculpted keys; the following 3, less high, in a broken cradle. In the 2nd half of the 15th century, following the Hundred Years War, a large part of the building was taken over. The left wall has been replaced by a series of 5 large smooth columns, without capitals Lit by 5 pointed arch windows, this 2nd nave also has its own entrance door to the west and on a landing preceded by several steps. Defensive elements were added to the south wall of the nave (walkway, crenellations, loopholes...), and a new bell tower was built above the 1st bay of the nave. This work was completed in the 17th century, for the completion of the vaults of the 1st spans of the nave, and for that of the bell tower, covered with a hull roof. Inside, the south wall of the nave is still pierced with semicircular bays framed by small columns with carved capitals. As for the western facade, it presents the usual structure of the Romanesque facades of the region. Made up of 3 arcades on each of the 2 levels, like a Roman triumphal arch.

The key is always there. The crypt is an unforgettable experience. Accommodation is available directly at the church. And: there is a pilgrim service at 10 o'clock. The church is impressive. See Wikipedia

And here you can stay cheap. In the very well-prepared cells. Breakfast from 7:00 h. Very rich