Friday - Saintes-Pons
After nostalgia trip to La Rochelle (where I lived for a while many years ago), arrived in Saintes at 10.30 to sample a section of the route in Charente Maritime. The department produces a very good free map to the route in their area (which I got from the tourist office) and have marked it with concrete plinths with scallop shells, similar to those in Galicia. Although this section is now part of an official GR - GR655 - there were no red/white stripe waymarks that I saw. The Tours-Mirambeau section is however now marked on the IGN maps.
Quite a warm day Thursday in La Rochelle, and still quite warm when I set off from Saintes around lunch time, though it later clouded over and there were even a few spots of rain. River path to start with (the Charente, in fact), and then a short section along the main road, though with wide verges, past a base of the armée de l’air. However, soon off on to grassy field tracks most of the way to Pons, passing the remains of a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre just after the airbase. As a change from the sand of the Landes, this is limestone country, just on the edge of the Cognac wine area. A clear day, with views back to Saintes most of the way; wind got up as over the tops of this undulating country. Lots of birdsong - larks, corn buntings.
To Pons just after 4, an easy walk, 23km officially. The GR takes a wandering course down to the river (Seugne) and up into the old town via some picturesque alleys. I however continued along the road, and into one of the ** hotels in the centre. Later, went for a walk, exploring the GR, marked ‘Chemin de St Jacques’, in the lower town, which has a C12 church, and up little alleyways, past a fountain called the Font-Pissotte, to the centre, which has a medieval dungeon and a rue St Jacques.
Another excellent dinner in the hotel, this time with a large group of Flemings at a neighbouring table.
24km