The best traffic-free bike rides around Vaux-Lavalette

Marie atypical and picturesque which is located in a former small manor beautifully restored. There is a lighted well placed in the center of its hall of honor. This town hall is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in Charente. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-114.html

Passage which allows you to see the town hall building, authentic and well restored, that of the church and a beautiful panorama of Montmoreau.

This is one of the six Romanesque churches in the new commune of Montmoreau. It is located in the heart of a very hilly landscape, perched on top of a hill, and offers a beautiful view of the center of Montmoreau. The construction of this Romanesque church dates back to the 12th century. At that time, it was a former vicarage of the diocese of Périgueux, dependent on the abbey of Nanteuil-en-Vallée. The nave now houses a set of well-preserved neo-Gothic furniture from the 19th century. There are a Stations of the Cross, a pulpit, and a painting of Saint-Amand (Bishop of Bordeaux in the 5th century). On the south wall of the nave, there are traces of a wall painting that is unfortunately very damaged, but one of the characters can still be distinguished: a light tonsured man. These remains are a reminder that religious buildings were generally painted in medieval times. The painted scenes covered the interior space, more the sanctuary, reserved for the religious, than the nave where the laity were confined. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-115.html

Church located near the cemetery. It is a Romanesque church, pierced by an ogival door on important corner buttresses. Rebuilt in the 15th century, it was restored from 1656 to 1668, then in 1830. Two side chapels were added, and an arcade bell tower on the facade. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juillaguet

Montmoreau Castle is in the new commune of Montmoreau in Charente Montmoreau is a new French commune located in the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It was created on January 1, 2017 from the merger of Montmoreau-Saint-Cybard, Saint-Amant, Saint-Eutrope, Saint-Laurent-de-Belzagot and Aignes and Puypéroux. Montmoreau Castle stands at the top of a natural hill overlooking the Tude Valley. In the centuries of instability and disorder that followed the collapse of Roman Gaul, the invasion of the Arabs from Spain around 700 and the Viking raids in 844 added to the anxiety of the populations of our region. Then the disintegration of the Carolingian empire led to a dispersion of the centers of power from which feudalism would be born. This is why the 10th and 11th centuries were a time when a large number of fortified entrenchments or camps were established, often built on "castral mounds", which are at the origin of many of today's "castles". The hill of Montmoreau offered in a way a perfect natural mound for the construction of what was probably at first a simple fortified camp and became a feudal castle in the 11th century. It occupied the platform and was provided with a double fortified enclosure. The two round towers of the current building belonged to the feudal castle. Likewise the porch chapel, Notre-Dame chapel, which was located in the first enclosure. But excavations would surely reveal traces of other remains. The current castle was built on this same site in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps by Guy de Mareuil, lord of Montmoreau, Villebois and Mareuil. With the exception of the two feudal towers, the entire building is partly Gothic and partly Renaissance. It is a perfect witness to this pivotal period between a world that was ending and a world that was beginning. Over the centuries, it seems that the various lords and then owners of the castle never had enough money to add buildings from different periods to the building, as can be seen in so many other castles. Preserved almost intact since its construction, the castle of Montmoreau therefore offers an architectural heritage of exceptional purity. The renovations carried out by the current owner aim, by reinforcing the solidity of the buildings, to restore the original aspects under the few modifications that have been made. Towards the east, overlooking the Tude valley, the castle displays a façade that looks great with its high main building flanked by the two round feudal towers and its sloping roofs of flat tiles from which the chimneys emerge. On the side of the north tower, about halfway up, we can make out an old door that opened onto the castle's patrol path. The Gothic gables of the central body bristle with stone plant crosiers. Their bases are seated on two sculptures of "intimidating lions", one opening its mouth to the north, the other to the south, and they are crowned by a finial. To the north and south, a pavilion leans against the gable. The southern one has just regained its original three-sided roof. Towards the west, the façade that faces the park also mixes eras. The mullioned Renaissance windows retain civil Gothic motifs. The hexagonal tower of the staircase projects from the façade. It has a very beautiful door in flamboyant Gothic style, with a tympanum sculpted with prismatic ribs and intertwined foliage practically erased by the erosion of time. But if you look closely, you can make out a bird in profile among the foliage on the right side. Perhaps the signature of the stonemason artist. In the corner of this tower and the façade, stands a watchtower with a pointed bell tower made of chestnut essentes (a type of shingle) whose base in a "cul-de-lampe" is completely in the Renaissance style. Source: https://montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-116.html#:~:text=L'%C3%A9difice%20a%20%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20class%C3%A9,%C3%A9difice%20par%20la%20nef%20porche. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Montmoreau https://monumentum.fr/monument-histoire/pa00104431/montmoreau-chateau

Primitive in style, built in the 11th or 12th century, the Saint-Eutrope church was built on the site of a previous place of worship. It was first a perpetual vicariate dependent on the abbey of Cluny. The building was restored and modified at the end of the 19th century by the architect Paul Abadie who mainly had the bell tower remodeled by adding a second floor, consisting on each side of three bays with two arches on a straight foot and topped with a fairly high pyramidal spire. It has a wooden frame covered in slate. Shortly before the storm of 1999, some work was carried out in order to restore its former character, in particular the unvaulted nave, thus revealing the original wooden frame. This work made it possible to uncover a small door leading to the outside located to the left of the nave and near the choir. Door that can be found in many Romanesque churches (such as the church of Montmoreau). The location of these doors is said to evoke the lance thrust to the heart that Christ received on the cross. This opening was transformed into a niche to house the statue of the Virgin and Child Jesus. The bell tower houses two bells: the first weighs 110 kg and dates from 1725, the second weighs 375 kg and dates from 1890. The exterior staircase leading to the bell tower is very special. It is of the self-supporting type: that is to say that each step sealed in the wall rests partially on the previous one. There are two other staircases of this type in the town. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-115.html

The church is located in the commune of Chavenat, in the Charente department. The Saint-Cybard church in Chavenat was founded in the 11th century. It was built in Romanesque style, based on plans by the architect Pierre de Montboissier. The Saint-Cybard church in Chavenat has the distinction of having 11th century wall paintings. These paintings, which depict biblical scenes, are rare and remarkable. During work carried out between 1990 and 1993 (including the installation of contemporary stained glass windows), these medieval wall paintings were unearthed. https://www.tripadvisor.fr/Attraction_Review-g5062378-d23815265-Reviews-Eglise_Saint_cybard_A_Chavenat-Chavenat_Charente_Nouvelle_Aquitaine.html

Located on one of the paths to Santiago de Compostela, the Via Turonensis (Road to Tours), the Saint-Denys de Montmoreau church was built in the 12th century. It has retained its original appearance, with the exception of the square Romanesque bell tower which was completely modified in the mid-19th century by Paul Abadie. A Romanesque church whose façade is marked by a polylobed portal and two arcades. It consists of a nave covered with a barrel vault, a transept whose crossing has a dome on pendentives and a vast, very bright semicircular apse. The chevet bordering the road is decorated with a very prominent horizontal cordon supported by modillions representing human or animal faces. The magnificent Romanesque frontispiece has an arched portal whose five arches form an archivolt resting on slender columns with sculpted capitals. The inner arch is openworked by six lobes ending with symbolic animal heads. All the decorations bear witness to an oriental influence in the South-West Romanesque and especially to the virtuosity of the sculptors. https://www.montmoreau.fr/index-module-orki-page-view-id-115.html https://monumentum.fr/monument-historique/pa00104432/montmoreau-eglise-saint-denis