We took a bound towards Spain today traveling about 350 kilometers to Saintes just north of Bordeaux. It was an easy drive, we took our time departing Rennes so we got here about 3pm just as six other campers arrived at the same time. The clerk at the check in looked at her full office and made the smart decision of taking an ID from each of us, throwing the gate to the campground open and telling us all to go park and come back to register and get our ID back when we were set up. Its nice to see someone with initiative and common sense.
Ton informed me on the drive that Saintes was known for 4 things, a Cathedral (of course), a Roman arch, a Roman amphitheater, and an 11th century abbey. Of the 4 the Abbaye aux Dames sounded the most interesting as it is a well preserved Abbaye for nuns from the 11th century. So after settled in we followed the Charente River to town.
As we were heading down the river towards the center of town we spotted the Cathedral so we popped over there for a check. The most interesting feature to us was the undecorated wooden ceiling. We think it is the first Cathedral we have seen without a stone or stuccoed roof.
After the Cathedral we spotted the very well preserved Roman Arch across the river so we headed over there for a quick look. The arch of Germanicus was built around 19 AD at the foot of the Roman bridge that crossed the river. We are getting a little jaded as something as well preserved as this arch from over 2100 years ago was met with a “that’s a nice arch”, a couple of quick photos and then we moved on. It is a well preserved arch that was almost torn down in the 1800’s because it was in the way when they were rebuilding the bridge. Instead it was relocated to a riverside park a couple of hundred yards away (so in a way I guess it was torn down, it was just rebuilt).
The next stop was the abbey. The abbey for women was founded by the Benedictine order in the 11th century and was an important part of the region until the French Revolution. During the Revolution the Abbey was turned into a prison and after the revolution around 1820 it was turned into an Army Barracks until 1944.
After the war the city acquired the buildings and have recently been running a hotel in part of the old living quarters for the nuns. The buildings are well preserved having been in continuos use since 1050.
We had hit 3 of the 4 big things in Saintes which left the Roman amphitheater. When I checked the map it would have meant a 2 kilometer round trip in the wrong direction so we decided that we have seen a lot of Roman Amphitheaters in our travels so decided to give it a pass.
We had a nice evening stroll along the Charente to return to a bustling campground. Shoulder season is not as quiet as it used to be in Europe.