France is just a Pile of Rocks!

All this is said with tongue very firmly in cheek, so dont go getting crazy at me, ok?:)

Yes! It's true. The place is in ruins! Every town, hamlet and even city has it's rock piles (falling down buildings, or as the realty adverts very nicely put it...ruins!).
In many of these places they call them Historic Monuments. We are very happy about this, so dont get me wrong. We LOVE seeing these rock piles, because they are part of the Living History that we love about this country and indeed, most of Europe.

Today (Thursday) we went to one of these Historic Monuments in the lovely city of Saintes (cents) where we found a Roman Amphitheater, just as we had predicted. We didn't get to see the Arch of Germanicus, but there is plenty of time to explore this place further at a later date.

Before winding down quite a steep road to get to the bottom, and therefore view the Amphitheatre, we parked just up the road from the Eglise Saint Eutrope. This Church is significant because the first edition of it was begun in 1031. These dates rather boggle the mind, dont they? Devotion was already established in the town of Saintes in the 6th century. St Eutrope was the first bishop here.
The iteration we saw today was developed over the centuries, as they are, but the original crypt is still underneath the church. I did kind of venture down there, but it was so deathly cold, on a deathly cold day, that I didn't linger. Suffice to say, that the folks who worshipped here must have been very hardy folks indeed. The church that we see today was finished some time around King Louis the X1, in the fifteenth century.

 WOW! Look at the rocks underneath the blocks that have fallen off.

After having thoroughly investigated the outside of the church, while trying to keep warm, we decided we needed to 'top up' our breakfast, and as it was 10.30am, what better time to have a Pain Raisin (for me) and Croissant Armand for Waz. We ate those out of the bag when we got to the bottom of the hill and at the entry gates to the Amphitheatre.
There wasn't a huge variety of patisserie (fortunately for our choices, which are challenged anyway) in this store, which would indicate to us that the local folks dont eat a whole lot of fancy stuff.

 This street, with the gates at the bottom is actually steeper than it looks.

 Our destination. Having followed the signs...which themselves can be really misleading. French arrows can confuse the heck out of us sometimes!...we arrived at the gates of the Roman Amphitheatre. This is quite extraordinary, this place...as you will see.

Following yet further signs, we made our way up the hill to the very top where the ticket office is, and guess what!! It has a small café in there:) Of course we went for a Grand Crème after our fingers had frozen off photographing the ruins. Waz did the ordering!:)

 The path wasn't all paved. It got a bit muddy!

 Even though the sun was out, it was truly bone chilling.
The view across the fence to the ruins...Waz got all carried away with visions of Chariots, Lions, slaves and martyrs alike, not to mention the feeding of the same to the aforementioned lions.

 The ground does flood at times, and the ticket office/café had some photos of one of them in the 1980s.

 This entry is quite steep...this is where Waz's imagination went riot!

 We walked around as far as we could go, to the other side.

 Look at this detail! You can really imagine people filing into this arena, and seeking their seats.

The Ramparts of the town going up the hill past the Amphitheatre. Plenty of homes built into them.

After visiting the ruins we walked down and around the park, which was lovely The walking track gave us a perfect time to think about our next movements.

We were on our way from Saintes, where we had spent the night, Thursday night, after a day inspecting three homes to possibly purchase. We were pretty pooped, after taking in all that information, and we had identified that we wanted to see the last home, a second time. It wasn't far from our next destination, St Jean d'Angely (Cent zhong dong zhai lee.
We had found a McDonalds close to the Ibis Hotel where we slept, not wanting to spend another 20 euros for breakfast for the two of us. We had bought dinner at the hotel last night, which was fine, but not inexpensive at 37euros for the two of us.  It was raining cats and frogs, and it wasn't until we sat down for dinner that we identified the bright lights of the Chinese Buffet across the road, and almost wished we had gone there instead of being subject to the rather obsequious service we suffered at the hotel.
McDonalds because they have free WIFI (pron. wee fee in France). Not for the food, that's for sure!

The countryside in this area, which I call the Golden Triangle in the Charente/Charente Maritime, is between the towns of Cognac, to the west, Saintes directly to the east, and St Jean d'Angely in the north east of there, is gorgeous.

 Wide open fields....these ones growing Turnips, but could easily be winter wheat or vine covered.

 The information board in the Heart of the Historic Town.

One of the few wooden houses we have ever seen in these parts. This wood covers a stone wall, which cracked us up. Still, the wood is rather old. Who knows how long it has been there. Pretty decorative too!

 The towers of this church were built or added, should I say, in 1741. This is the Abbaye St Jean d'Angely.

 This is the 18th century entry (next door, and to the right of the front of the Abbaye) the Porche de l'Abbaye. The gates are stunning. We went through that little portal to the left, to take a look at the magnificent building beyond.

 I thought I might like to have a pair like this, myself!

 Absolutely stunning in it's winter starkness. People came and went...it was lunch time!

 Everywhere (there is a garden) there were signs of Spring springing.

 What a stunning pile of stone! It used to be huge, and you will see the rest of it...or should I say, What is left of it, in the coming photos.
We were in awe of the power of this building and the thoughts we had of those who designed it, let alone those who built it. Amazing.

 The back side of the Abbaye. You can see where other parts of the building came out from the inside wall of the towers.

 The oriinal Benedictine Abbaye was founded in 817. Cant you even get your head around that date? I cant. Always fascinating histories.

 The well inside the walls. There has probably always been a well here. The plane trees in this compound hadn't been brutally cut, as they are in most other places. I love their spindly, sky-reaching branches against the blue sky. A lovely, but cold day everywhere.

 Stunning!

 Inside the historic church.

 I am amazed at how my little camera has made these photos look so good, as it was so dark inside.

 I always inspect the floors. I love these Escher type (top of the photo)tiles...I believe they are called Tomette Tiles. They are traditional here. Will see if we can find any reclaimed ones, I think. The floors tell a story of their own, always.

 I'm so please that the locals think to reclaim their heritage through these buildings. They have much pride in the edifices in their towns and cities.

 The stained glass windows were glorious, from the inside. You can see where there was previously another part of the building, on the right.

 St Jean was quiet and almost empty...partly because it was lunch time, but also because it was winter, and very cold. We met few other people in the middle of town.
This Colombage (colom barzhe) house is falling to bits, but they have shored it up with some steel plates underneath to keep it from sagging any further. More restoration!

 We didn't have time to go down to the clock tower, but this gave us a reason to return in the not too distant future.

 We were hungry, and it was 1.30pm. NOT a good time to be looking for food in France. Most restaurants dont want to feed you at this hour...turn up at noon, or miss out! 1.30, they are closing the kitchen so they can get out of there for their own time out before re-opening at 7pm. We stopped off at a Creperie, but nobody could really tell us why they wouldn't seat us, and nobody spoke English. We dont expect them too, but my French didn't understand why they told us to go away and come back in half an hour...que?
So we walked further down the road. First, we had to inspect the old town square, where those who were braving the cold and sitting in the sun at the café, watched us tourists with some disinterest, until we started taking photos...of the town well!

 Well...who wouldn't! :)

 Back along the road to find food. This took my fancy:) A little bit of whimsy in a country where whimsy appears to be mostly absent. Serious folks, these French!

 We approached the restaurant after reading their menu outside on the chalk boards. The daily special looked good, and exactly what we might have eaten at home....pumpkin soup...except that this was not butternut soup, which we prefer, but real orange pumpkin. It has an interesting (I dont like granular things) texture, and was topped with roasted chestnuts, sliced. It came with fried garlic bread. Hmm....tasty, but lacked salt. We decided to have the bread pudding with Crème Anglais for dessert...it was advertised as "Pudding Raisin avec Crème Anglais". They should have used golden raisins instead of black ones, and cream in their pudding instead of milk...fussy moi! Tasty, but stolid. We ate it all anyway, not knowing when our next meal might be.
The view from the restaurant. Not a soul in sight.

 The thick pumpkin soupe with roasted chestnut slices. Tasty.

You can see that I ate the whole thing...the pudding that is. Forgot to take a photo of it before eating, lol.

Tummy's full, we headed back to the car and off to revisit the last house we had seen yesterday. A lovely home that I will tell you about in the next blog.
Ciao