The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Léger

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 choir, narrower than the nave, extends over two bays bounded by pointed arches supported by columns with smooth capitals. The apse, with its pure lines and semi-dome vault, has its perimeter adorned with five Romanesque arches with small columns. Double columns separate three arched windows similar to those in the choir. A few specifically Romanesque capitals, apart from those in the square, are noteworthy in this otherwise very interesting church: a head studded with birds, a child teasing a large monster's head, etc. The bell, dated 1583, has been listed in the Historical Furniture. At the end of the right transept, a large marble plaque details the numerous benevolent deeds of "a virtuous man who has been buried in the church since 1782" and who had forbidden in his will that his name be inscribed on his tomb. As the church also bears a coat of arms, that of Guy de Monconseil, who died at that time, it is not impossible to unravel the mystery of this anonymity. In 1877, a Marquis de Monconseil, among other charitable works, founded a large hospice in Tesson where the poor were received. Near the church, on the site of the old cemetery, stands a beautiful 15th-century hosanna cross.

The church of St. Gregory of Tesson dates, in its core, from the 12th and perhaps the 11th century, but what remains of the visible parts dates from the 13th century, with alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries. The current bell tower was built around 1880 in a Romanesque-Gothic style, where the abundance of pinnacles, awning windows, canted corners, and balustrades replace the absent archaeological interest. It rises on the side of the nave, in the west corner of the left transept. This building, dedicated to Saint Gregory, is built on a classical plan, with a single nave, a transept with apses, a choir, and a semicircular apse. The façade, in pure Saintonge style and with its beautiful lines, includes a vast semicircular portal flanked by two blind bays, a gallery on the first floor, and a gable. The gallery arches no longer exist; When the gable was built in the 18th century, they were removed. This façade, framed by tall, separate columns, is unfortunately obstructed, like too many churches today, by trees planted at the time of the suppression of cemeteries. These trees now obscure, here a façade, there an apse, elsewhere an interesting detail. Municipalities, aware of the honor of having such works of art on their land, should not only maintain them, but also clear them and strive to highlight them. The five arches of the portal, simply adorned with a string of diamond points, rest on columns raised on a bench. Above, unarced columns, single or double, surmounted by crocketed capitals, have very wide abacuses that form as many consoles. At each end of the solid gable wall, topped by a cross with an escutcheon, stands a statue. One did not escape mutilation. The nave has two vaulted bays with crossed ogival arches with three tori which, with the formerets, rest on two strong columns and two smaller ones topped with crocketed or foliate capitals. The smaller ones support lateral arches, each framing a semicircular window. At the top of the walls, curious little oculi of an unusual design also open—a rare detail in Saintonge; one is shaped like a crescent and fits within a circumference; another imitates a four-leaf clover. These openings were added at the time of the vaulting's restoration, that is, in the 14th century. In the square of the transept, four blocks of eight columns are connected by pointed arches. This square, now vaulted like the bays of the nave, was originally covered by a dome surmounted by the old bell tower, destroyed during the war against the English. Each side of this bell tower was adorned with two round-arched windows with stringcourses. The base of the first floor is still visible. The voluminous columns that border the square transept are remarkable. The columns of varying sizes all have capitals whose ornamentation of acanthus leaves or beaded garlands extends onto the flats of the pilasters in a frieze form. This very fine and meticulous decoration produces, despite numerous mutilations, a great artistic effect. The very deep transept gives the whole the shape of a Greek cross. The transepts, vaulted in a pointed barrel, are illuminated by round-arched windows. The apse of the one on the left features two curious small capitals that surmount the small columns of the entrance arch. Their large, well-crafted abacuses extend into a beautifully sculpted cordon around the entire half-circumference and extend into a miter, supporting the base of the semi-domed vault. This apse is externally adorned with four groups of two slender, twin columns forming light buttresses.

I really enjoyed this ride. I’m 46, I did it on a 40 year old road bike, it’s more suited to a cyclocross bike!

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 Château de la Garde was built around 1606-1610.