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Angouleme, France

Self Catering Angouleme Holiday Homes, Cottages and Gites – Rent in France

Angoulême is the capital of the Charente department in the Poitou Charentes region of South West France. When you visit Angouleme you’ll note that it has an elevated promontory, washed on the north by the Charente River and on the south and west by the Anguienne River.

When you rent a holiday cottage in Angouleme you’ll discover you’ve the opportunity to visit its ancient fortifications. Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Angouleme’s "old town" has been preserved, maintained and is today largely reserved for pedestrians. It has a cobbled restaurant quarter, with several galleries, boutiques and is definitely worth a visit.

Another place worth a visit when you stay in an Angouleme holiday gite is its cathedral. The cathedral, dedicated to Saint Peter, is a church in the Romanesque style. Dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, it has undergone frequent restoration. It was partly rebuilt in the latter half of the nineteenth century by architect Paul Abadie. The façade, flanked by two towers with cupolas, is decorated with arcades featuring statuary and sculpture, the whole representing the "Last Judgment".

The hôtel de ville, also designed by Abadie, is a handsome 19th-century structure. It preserved and incorporated two towers of the château of the counts of Angoulême, on the site of which it was built. It contains museums of paintings and archaeology.

For cartoon lovers who stay in Angouleme, then a tour of the town is essential! On organized tours look out for the ‘murs peints’, various walls painted in street-art cartoon style, a feature of Angoulême and related to its association with the ‘bande dessinée’ - the comic strip. A statue has been erected to Hergé, creator of The Adventures of Tintin.

To get to your Angoulme holiday home: The Gare d'Angoulême railway station offers connections to Paris, Bordeaux, Tours, Limoges and several regional destinations. There are currently no regular flights to/from Angoulême airport. Other close airports worth considering are: Bergerac Airport, Bordeaux Airport, or Limoges Airport. Check for seasonal variations in airline operators into each of the airports. The A10 motorway goes through the Poitou Charentes region and enables access to many towns including Chatellerault, Poitiers, Niort and Saintes, and connecting the region to Bordeaux and Paris.

The Poitou-Charentes region is renowned for having one of the most pleasant climates in France. Winters are really mild and thanks to the oceanic climate, summers are hot but not muggy.  Poitou-Charentes benefits from 2,400 sunshine hours a year and is the hottest and sunniest place of the whole Atlantic coast.