Access to the SAINTONGE

mainly located in the department of "CHARENTE-MARITIME"

to the Charente-maritimeTGV & TER = railway stations

rad map

See the site http://www.evadez-vous17.com/situation/ as an help to prepare tour trip

Follows the towns having a touristic office:


Detailed road map (ask it to the touristic offices).

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The Charente Maritime in some figures:


With 6 864 km2 the department of Charente-Maritime occupies 27 % of the surface of the Region Poitou Charente (map opposite). It is divided in 5 districts, from North to South: La Rochelle (leader place of the department), Saint Jean d' Angély, Rochefort, Saintes and Jonzac; total 51 cantons and 472 communes.

SAINTES and JONZAC are in SAINTONGE, the others in AUNIS in term of ancestral provinces.


The Charente- Maritime contains four islands, among which Ré and Oleron are connected with the continent by a bridge:

- to the North, RE just in front of LA ROCHELLE,

- At the mouth of the Charente, the island of OLERON, and more modest, the island of AIX and the island MADAM.

Clayey limestones of Aunis are convenient has the grain culture, whereas chalky and marly limestones of Saintonge are more adapted has the vineyard, and whereas marshes constitute grasslands favoring the development of the farm and breeding.

Charente-Maritime enjoys a moderate and sunny climate, benefiting from a moderate rainfall. The average of the temperatures varies of + 5 ° C in winter and more of + 20 ° C in summer and the level of the precipitation does not exceed 900 mm a year.It is notorious that the rate of period of sunshine of Charente-Maritime is identical that the one of the North of Provence or Languedoc.

Swampy on a big part of its coastal zones with the poitou Marsh, the rochefort-marennes Marshes and those of Brouage, the department presents a relief of plains and low plateaus of which the peak point does not surpass meters 167.

The river system, directed Southeast / Northwest, is mainly constituted by The Charente and by its tributaries, Boutonne, Seugne, Arnoult, valleys of which form a natural frontier between AUNIS, in the North, and SAINTONGE, in the South.

Young countries according to the new administrative laws of the maritime Charente are:

HAUTE SAINTONGE (133communes)

SAINTONGE ROMANE (70 communes)

VALS DE SAINTONGE (117 communes)

RE Island (10 communes)

AUNIS (51 communes)

MARENNES-OLERON ( 15 communes)

PAYS ROCHEFORTAIS

PAYS ROYANNAIS (31 communes)

and PAYS ROCHELAIS (18 communes) .

 

Retour "images de Saintonge" Back" Pictures of Saintonge" Retour "Art roman en saintonge" Back "Romanesque art in Saintonge"

End of page updated: sept