The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Thomas-De-Conac

Former railway from 1888, now an excellent smooth bike trail to the Gironde estuary.

A resort located on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, this historic town owes its prosperity to its geographical location. The ancient Roman road, which connected Saintes to Blaye, was in use for fourteen centuries. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it was used by pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. A hospital located near the road, run by monks, provided travelers with a rest. National Route 137 was known as the "Royal Route" (an imperial route under the Empire) and dates back to the reign of Charles VIII (1483-1498). Its creation led to the establishment of hotels, inns, and stagecoach services along the road. The name Étauliers is mentioned in 1730. The railway, now removed, dates from 1888.

Testimony of the past. Market place

evidence of the past.

Of the first, very well placed at the top of a high mound, there are hardly any more than vague sections of walls and of the second some carved stones incorporated, with the base and the shaft of an old cross, in the masonry of the current building. This one is almost entirely modern. The side chapels are from the last century and the Romanesque bell tower dates from 1890. It rises on two floors with semicircular bays, crowned with a stone spire, in front of the nave, its base forming a porch. The basket-handle capped nave and the chevet have no decoration. The stoup is from the 17th century. The church of Soubran houses a very beautiful painted canvas (1.90 x 1.30), from the 18th century representing a crucifixion, listed in the Mobilier Historique. The bell dated 1629 is also listed in the Mobilier Historique. From 1970, restoration work on the church of Soubran was undertaken in order to repair the numerous degradations due to time, on the one hand, but also to man. Many valuables had been stolen including ....... the altar, yes the altar!!! The mayor, Bernard Louis-Joseph, then went in search of an altar which he ended up finding in the town of Coulgens in Charente. But during the installation in the church of Soubran, minor cleaning work revealed a small box containing relics They were accompanied by a short text in Latin that Father Genet, Father Cooperator of the parishes of Mirambeau, Jonzac and Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, former Latin teacher, was happy to translate. "The year of the Lord 1884 on the 24th of November, I, Alexandre, Léopold Sebaux, bishop of Angoulême, consecrated in honor of Saint John the Baptist* an altar in this place of our diocese commonly called Coulgens and I have inserted therein the relics of Saints Amant, Bonosius and Serena, martyrs». These relics have now returned to their original place in the altar.

war memorial with a very realistic soldier. Truer than nature. with the church in the background

The small church of Soubran probably replaced the old chapel of a very close castle. Castle and chapel disappeared, destroyed, one and the other, at the time of the wars of Religion.

The Seugne crosses a single department, in this case that of Charente-Maritime, watering thirty-six communes and seven cantons. The Seugne has its source in the canton of Montlieu-la-Garde, then crosses the cantons of Montendre, Jonzac, Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, Pons, Gémozac and, finally, confluences in the canton of Saintes-Est. The Seugne has eighteen tributaries or referenced arms. The old forms of the name Seugne are flumen Soenna around 1100, Sonye in 1280, la Soyngna in 1322, la Soyngnhe in 1354, aqua Soynnie in 1363, Souaigne in 1494. The current pronunciations, Seugne and Souègne, are based on a medieval form Soïgne, which the scribes of the 13th and 14th centuries had difficulty transcribing. According to Duguet, a more recent spelling, Seuigne was misread and interpreted Sévigne in the 19th century.