Attractions and Places To See around Saint-Amant-De-Boixe - Top 20

Close to Lichére, a short detour to the unmissable village of Aunac sur Charente, a relaxing break with all shops: bakery, pastry shop, bar, restaurant, general food with local products, butcher, delicatessen, camping, canoeing, guinguette!!

The place is beautiful, but too crowded in the summer season. People on foot who take the entire width of the path, dogs not kept on a leash and so on...

Leisure center fitted out with nautical base.

The early 12th century church has all but disappeared, itself and the reconstructions have suffered from the military conflicts that have punctuated the centuries. You enter through an open portal in a facade which very well announces the architectural juxtapositions. These last give a particular charm to the building by their inconsistencies. They arouse curiosity and ultimately offer the visitor a certain degree of privacy. An organ with the original story has been installed. It is the ultimate work of Ivan Peychès (1906-1978), a genius scientific researcher but also a visual artist, musician and composer. Brilliant innovator in the field of applied sciences, he will build this instrument in his living room in ten years during his retirement.

Former priory linked to Saint-Amand-de-Boixe, given to the abbey by Guillaume IV, count of Angoulême, before 1030. A campaign of works is attested in the 17th century and restorations in the 19th. The building has retained traces of its original 11th century architecture: drop walls of the nave crisscrossed with arches, intended to receive a light structure. The nave is under frame after having received a ceiling. Around 1120, the building increased with a bay under a bell tower, vaulted with a dome on horns carried by pillars with a cruciform core, flanked by columns with ball capitals and an apse. A north transept arm and its oriented apse, correspond to a third campaign of work (late 12th century?). The church underwent some transformations at the time of the Hundred Years' Wars: raising of the nave above the cornice and use of the bell tower (murderer with viewfinder).

Nestled between the Charente river and the Boixe forest, the former abbey has watched over the north of Angoumois for over a thousand years. Mentioned in 888, the abbey church was rebuilt in the 11th and 12th centuries, thanks to the generosity of the Counts of Angoulême. This building constitutes an inescapable testimony of the Charente Romanesque art. In the 13th century, a large fire destroyed the site, forcing the reconstruction of the choir of the church, which was not completed until the 16th century. Listed as a historical monument in 1840 on the initiative of Mérimée, this vast monument has always impressed with its mass and its refinement: artists such as Eugène Delacroix and Maurice Utrillo are not mistaken. Each year, more than 13,000 visitors come to discover and appreciate this building with such a rich history. The abbey site has also given rise to several archaeological excavations, enriching the historical and cultural interest of this high heritage site.

The church of Saint-Denis in Vars, with the castle to the north, formed an episcopal complex of which the bishop was the lord. Although the church is not mentioned until 1110, the possession of this seigneury by the bishop is attested as early as the 1030s. Probably in connection with the building of the castle to the north, the very sober facade of the church has been altered: one can still distinguish traces of the old bell tower with two arches, in the upper part. The bell tower built on the south arm of the transept is therefore posterior. The apse has the particularity of having been raised in order to fortify it and to fit various defensive elements (heated room, bay windows with cushions, access to gateways, etc.)

Absolutely ! when I go to Angoulême, I always take the opportunity to take a walk along the Charente to this pretty lake! 😎