Saturday, August 27th – Day Eleven – San Jean d’Angely to Angouleme

We leave our little Restaurant Hotel in San Jean d’Angely early this morning but before dawn I made a second tour of the old town,  padding past the early risers at the Central Market in my trainers, and trying not to drool at the wonderful smells of fresh French bread coming from the various little Boulangerie around the old market place.

We headed towards the larger old City of Angouleme, where the resident population are called  Angoumoisins or Angoumoisines, which is not an obvious title to non-Francophiles, but this is because it used to be the Capital of Angoumois during the Ancien Régime .

As a reasonable sized City it not only boasts the 12th century Angoulême Cathedral, it also has many pretty churches, 4th Century Ramparts to walk – maybe even run – along for fine views across the Charente region. The College Jules Verne, which was formerly a deanery is prominently advertised around the town, perhaps to attract young blood and prevent the continued decline in population from 42,242 Angoumoisins since 2009 .

It is undoubtedly a pretty old town so a lot of places have chosen to be twinned with it as shown below – great excuse for an official visit.

Situated on the Touvre River, it has a steady volume of water all year-round, because it is where the river Touvre links with the Charente before flowing through  Angoulême.

These steady streams of water, have, throughout the years, made the City renowned for paper making – the best known example for mass export is Rizla+ = the cigarette roll-up paper, whose name is derived from a combination of riz (rice paper) and LaCroix, after Monsieur LaCroix the founder.

Naturally they also sponsor the motor-bike racers!

We are too early to see The Circuit des Remparts – a motor racing event, circuiting around the ramparts and past the Cathedral. It is held the Sunday of the middle weekend in September. It is also the occasion for a worldwide gathering of pre-war Bugatti race cars, usually around 30 cars attend, many of which are examples of the legendary T35, the Ferraris of their day. However, we did see quite a few British vintage and classic cars on the road, that could easily qualify for attendance. Probably they have been driven to the town for the Saturday of the “Remparts” weekend, which includes a tourist rally for classic and sporting cars, around the Cognac area.

In another international sports event, Angoulême was the site of the finish of Stages 18 and 19 (ITT) in the 2007 Tour de France so hopefully these Angoumoisins will be nice to us with our sporty bicycle!

An event which was happening tonight, was a Lebanese Film Night, part of this weekends Festival du Film Francophone, which led to a lot of rubber- neckers and police stopping cars who were trying to get into the centre – and naturally a fair number of Rue Barree!

We also visited the Musee de la Bande Dessinee , which is beautifully designed and laid out but I was disappointed to see very little Tintin and no reference at all to Mussolini’s children’s favourite  cartoon character, the recreated stories of Mickey Mouse, published at the beginning of WW2 as Topogiggio!

We stayed in Hotel Saint Antoine -after another nasty moment finding nobody at reception and the door locked when we arrived! Although it is a little way from the old city , it has WiFi, hairdryer, bath and a small gym at a good price so I forgive the minimalist decor – mainly off-white , at least it is in tune with the cows, the buildings and the butter!

Tomorrow Riberac – and another river to cross – this time one of my all time favourites ( Pace Arno!) the Dordogne awaits us!