Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes – Estuary front loop from Saintes

Road cycling routes

France

New Aquitaine

Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes – Estuary front loop from Saintes

Moderate

5.0

(1)

riders

Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes – Estuary front loop from Saintes

03:33

81.3km

500m

Road cycling

Moderate road ride. Good fitness required. Some segments of this route may be unpaved and difficult to ride. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: September 24, 2026

Tips

The surface along some of this route may not be suitable

Some segments of your route comprise a surface that may not be suitable for your chosen sport.

After 43.2 km for 266 m

After 53.2 km for 154 m

After 53.5 km for 112 m

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

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1.25 km

Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes

Highlight • Religious Site

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.

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38.7 km

Estuary front

Highlight • Other

40.5 km

View of the Gironde Estuary Cliffs

Highlight • Viewpoint

magnificent view of the Gironde estuary and its limestone cliffs.

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43.3 km

Caillaud cliff at Talmont sur Gironde

Highlight • Natural Monument

This cycleway is amazing, it is quiet and beautiful, not many equipments but still. It's wonderful

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48.6 km

Church of Arces

Highlight • Religious Site

53.2 km

Les Halles de Cozes

Highlight • Monument

evidence of the past.

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56.8 km

Bois de la Roche

Forest

65.0 km

Château de Châtenet Ruins

Highlight • Castle

71.3 km

Bois de la Casse à Robin

Forest

78.4 km

The Amphitheatre of Saintes

Highlight • Historical Site

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.

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