La Rochelle is a lively, sparkling seaside town with a great reputation for seafood, three urban beaches and the best vieux port on the French Atlantic. Spend a day strolling under the arcades of the rue du Palais, exploring the maritime museum , and the aquarium , open until 11pm in the summer.
Spend the late afternoon watching the pleasure boats and the evening on the seafront, eating a platter of shellfish. Two of its main towns, Saint Martin and La Flotte , are pleasantly breezy, even in high summer, with a permanent sound of fluttering mast wires in the harbour, a sprightly market in La Flotte and seafood bistros. On day seven, head eastwards on the D to Saintes , past the many signs for Pineau des Charentes.
Saintes has a huge Roman arch and the ruins of an amphitheatre , which can take up an afternoon if the visit includes the crypt of the Basilique St-Eutrope. Leave Saintes for a detour north on the dead-straight D to the Chateau de la Roche Courbon in Saint-Porchaire , a sumptuous 18th-century castle, which has its own prehistoric caves, turrets, and has launched a new escape game for summer From there, drive east through the vineyards towards Cognac , the smell of which can be detected long before arrival.
Most of the big brandy companies offer guided tours of their warehouses, with Camus being well-recommendedβ spiders in the roofs of its distilleries are so drunk they make crooked webs. This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.
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