The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Georges-Des-Coteaux

beautiful passages along the Charente with pretty monuments and small waterfront cafés in Port d’Envaux and Saintes.

The Gallo-Roman amphitheater of Sainte, also called the Arena of Saintes, is an elliptical monument built between 40 and 50 AD, probably during the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius. It measures approximately 126 meters by 102 meters and could accommodate between 12,000 and 15,000 spectators, making it one of the largest and oldest amphitheaters in Gaul. Located in a natural valley called the "Arènes valley," it takes advantage of the topography to limit construction work, with stands backing onto the hill. The site has two monumental gates, the "Gate of the Living" to the east and the "Gate of the Dead" to the west, and has been the subject of a major restoration project since 2021 to preserve this exceptional heritage. Accessible on foot from the city center, it offers an immersion in Roman history with an educational trail and activities for families

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 Saint-Pierre Cathedral is located in the heart of the old town on the left bank of the Charente. According to tradition, the founding of this episcopal see goes back to Saint Eutrope. The construction of the first Christian building on the site of the current cathedral could not be dated with any precision. It probably dates back to the 6th century.

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.

The Saint-Quentin Church dates from the 12th century, but it bears numerous traces of constructions or partial reconstructions carried out in the 13th and 16th centuries. In 1610, a canon from Saintes provided the funds to redo the cover. His weapons appear on a keystone. On a strong square stump, erected to the left of the nave, rises an octagonal tower pierced on its third floor with a large window on each side and, on the smaller upper floor, small openings in the form of loopholes, all topped with an acute gable roof with eight spindles. The northern corner of the stump is accompanied by a square staircase tower at the bottom, cylindrical at the top and ending in a stone pyramid covered with jagged scales. The western facade, supported at the corners by two powerful buttresses, is decorated with a Romanesque portal with four semi-circular arches. The keys are bare. The three-bay nave has an eight-pointed pointed vault. The arches rest on four half-columns without capitals. The south wall is pierced with three Romanesque windows devoid of ornaments, the north wall with two smaller ones. A slight constriction of the nave is highlighted by two square pilasters against which are attached engaged columns which support a third-point arch. The recessed angles of the pilasters are garnished with smaller columns ending in hooked capitals. The third bay of the nave has a semi-circular opening on the left giving access under the bell tower to a porch communicating with the outside via a small square door. A large square and vaulted ossuary exists under this porch. The choir and the apse have pointed vaults. The left wall of the choir is pierced by a large bay window opening onto a stately chapel, itself vaulted in an ogive shape. The apse is lit by three semi-circular windows whose arches are simply decorated with a torus. A few meters from the north wall is a 15th century Hosannière cross.

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 Santons people occupied Saintonge during the Gallic era. The Romans conquered the region and settled on the banks of the Charente. The town of Saintes (then designated Mediolanum), located at the western end of the Via Agrippa which linked Lyon (capital of the Three Gauls) to the Atlantic coast, quickly became monumental. At the time of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), the city probably became the capital of the province of Greater Aquitaine (Aquitania). This then extended from the Loire to the Pyrenees. Mediolanum is endowed with important public monuments: the amphitheater, the arch of Germanicus, the thermal baths and the aqueduct are still partially visible today. At the time of its peak (end of the 1st century – beginning of the 2nd century), the city must have had several thousand inhabitants. The amphitheater of Mediolanum is one of the earliest in Gaul. It is estimated that its construction began during the reign of Tiberius (14 – 37 AD), and was completed during the reign of Claudius (41 – 54 AD). Like many amphitheaters of the Roman Empire, that of Saintes was located on the outskirts of the ancient city in a chosen and developed site: the “vallon des Arènes”. Thanks to a favorable topography, the builders were relieved of part of their work, the amphitheater resting on the slope of the valley. This elliptical monument, with imposing dimensions (126 meters long and 102 meters wide), made it possible to accommodate several thousand spectators around bloody and violent representations such as gladiator fights (munera) or animal hunts (venationes ). In the 3rd century, the city declined and was entrenched within an impressive rampart, built from the remains of public and funerary monuments from previous decades. The amphitheater is then no longer used. Since the Middle Ages, it has been used, among other things, as a stone quarry. It was classified as a Historic Monument in 1840. It was from this moment that it was gradually restored. Today, despite the disappearance of the superstructures, the remains provide a faithful image of what this monument could have been at the time of its splendor. The site welcomes visitors all year round. Certain objects found during various excavations in the amphitheater district are visible at the archaeological museum.