Charente-Maritime - Charente-Maritime

Charente-Maritime is a department in the French region New Aquitaine and bears the serial number 17. The département borders on the départements in the north Vendée and Deux-Sèvres, in the east to the departments Charente and Dordogne, in the south to the département Gironde and the Gironde estuary and to the west to the Atlantic.

Regions

The department is divided into the following five arrondissements:

• Arrondissement of La Rochelle
• Arrondissement of Jonzac
• Arrondissement of Rochefort
• Arrondissement of Saint-Jean-d'Angély
• Arrondissement of Saintes

The historic province of Saintonge was mostly around the city of Saintes.

places

• Jonzac
• Rochefort
• La Rochelle is the prefecture (administrative seat) of the department.
• Royan, Port city at the mouth of the Gironde funnel into the Atlantic, a glamorous seaside resort until its destruction in the Second World War, in the 1950s and 60s a “laboratory” for modern architecture
• Saintes
• Saint-Jean-d'Angély

Other goals

• Île de Ré
• Île d'Oléron
• Île d'Aix
• Île Madame

• The one built on an artificial island Fort Boyard

background

language

getting there

By plane

• An airport of regional importance is the 46.179166666667-1.1952777777778La Rochelle Airport(IATA: LRH). From here there are mainly national connections, but also individual international connections to Great Britain or Switzerland, among others. Further information is available on the website of the La Rochelle Airport.
• The next major airport is that 44.828333-0.715556Bordeaux airport(IATA: BOD) . Further information is available on the website of the Bordeaux airport.

By train

• From Germany there are train connections with the TGV, ICE or Thalys Paris, there is a change in the direction of the Atlantic coast. In Paris, you have to switch between different train stations with the Métro.
• TGV trains run around 7 times a day from Paris Gare Montparnasse station Poitiers and Niort to La Rochelle. The travel time is a little over three hours. The trains also stop in Surgères.
• InterCity trains run to La Rochelle 3 times a day Bordeaux and after Nantes. The journey time is around two and a half hours in both cases. These trains also stop in Saintes and Rochefort.

By bus

• Long-distance buses run in the Charente-Maritime department to and from La Rochelle, Rochefort or Saintes. Connections are offered to Nantes, Rennes, Paris, Bordeaux or Toulouse, among others. In Paris, the airports and the center are served, the travel time to and from La Rochelle is around 7-9 hours. The connections are offered by the provider Flixbus.
• The French provider Ouibus also serves the places and routes mentioned - with the exception of Rochefort. There are also connections from the Île de Ré to Paris, among others, during the summer holidays.

By car

• In many cases the most suitable connections from Germany are via the Autobahn via Paris. From West Germany (Cologne) it is about 950 km to La Rochelle. From southern Germany (Karlsruhe) it is almost 1,000 km, but here you can bypass Paris far south in the direction of Orléans.
• The most important road traffic axis is the A 10 motorway from Paris to Bordeaux ("L'Aquitaine"), which runs past Saintes. After La Rochelle, the A 837 branches off and the N 11 national road, which is in parts of the motorway, branches off. The N 141, which is also partly four-lane, leads here from Angoulême.

By bicycle

• On the way from Brittany to Spain leads through the department on the Atlantic coast along the Vélodyssée, Part of the European long-distance cycle route EuroVelo 1.

On foot

• On the Via Turonensis, part of the Way of St. James, you can hike from Paris, Tours or Poitiers to Saintes.

mobility

By train

• TER regional trains run regularly on several routes. The station in Saintes is a junction of lines 15, 16 and 17, which lead to Bordeaux, Royan, La Rochelle, Niort and Angoulême. Another route runs as line 14 from La Rochelle to Niort. There are usually around ten trains a day in each direction, only the connection between Saintes and Niort is less frequent with five journeys. The trains generally run in the morning and in the evening approximately every hour, but at greater intervals during the day. Regional trains, on the other hand, run significantly more often between the two cities of La Rochelle and Rochefort (line 15U).
• Timetables of the railway lines can be found on the regional Website for the TER trains.

By bus

• There is a regional network of around a dozen lines in Charente-Maritime. The routes range from the Île de Ré in the north to Saintes in the south. Most lines run to and from La Rochelle, but several lines also serve Surgères, Rochefort, Royan and Saintes. The routes are mostly served only 3-4 times a day in each direction. The timetables are only adapted to rail traffic in a few cases. A half-day or day trip to the next city can still be planned with this offer. There are usually connections on the lines once in the morning, at noon and in the early evening, which you then have to be prepared for. At the weekend, individual trips are often only offered on Saturdays. Because the lines are sometimes over 40 km long, there are relatively few stops on the way. The tariffs are cheap, a single trip costs between € 2.50 and € 7.50 (as of 2019). Timetables and tariff information can be found on the Website of the regional provider in Charente-Maritime.
• The lines to the Île de Ré (line 3 or in summer 3A and 3B and express bus 3E) are mostly served hourly, the buses to Île d'Oléron (lines 6, 7 and express bus 6E) also run a little more often and to all Days of the week. The buses to the two islands are also coordinated with connections to TGV trains to and from Paris in La Rochelle and Surgères.
• There are well-developed city bus routes in the cities. The main lines in the line network yelobus in La Rochelle every ten minutes, the lines to nearby places within 10-15 km - including Châtelaillon-Plage - run every hour. The operator's buses run regularly in the urban area of ​​Rochefort and the neighboring municipalities r'bus on road. The operator's buses run Monday-Saturday in the coastal town of Royan cara'bus, There the buses in the city area run approximately every hour, and in the surrounding area approximately every two hours. The operator's three bus lines A, B and C are in Saintes BUSS Every 15-30 minutes in the city from Monday to Saturday. The tariffs are generally cheap, the price of a single ticket for adults is between € 1.10 and € 1.60 (as of 2019).

By bicycle

• Several supraregional cycle routes cross the department, including the Vélodyssée or La Flow Velo.
• Comprehensive information on cycling in the Charente-Maritime can be found e.g. on this Website, where many routes can also be discovered on an overview map.

Tourist Attractions

• Paléosite, 17770 Saint-Césaire. Tel.: 33 (0)8 20120234. Opened in 2005, an interactive museum (2000 m²) dedicated to the Neanderthals at the site of the bones of a Pierrette baptized, about 35,000 year old lady, who thoroughly mixed up the previous knowledge of prehistoric archeology, as she was surrounded by tools previously ascribed to the Cro-Magnon. Didactic exhibition with tools, reconstruction of the habitat, virtual 3-D images and a room dedicated to human morphology, in which you can have your own portrait made, of course with the features of the Neanderthal man!last change: not specified

• Saint-Martin-de-Ré with its fortifications built by Vauban, UNESCO World Heritage Site

activities

The coast is an ideal sailing and windsurfing area.

kitchen

Mussels are raised in Aiguillon Bay and oysters are raised in Marennes Bay. Around 50% of all French oysters come from here.

A regional specialty is the charron mussel dish from the town of the same name, which is served with the mouclade (a cream and curry sauce).

nightlife

security

climate

Temperate climate, which is determined by the Gulf Stream.

trips

• Forêt Domaniale de la Coubre la Tremblade
• Reserve Naturelle Nationale de la baie de l'Aiguillon
• Réserve Naturelle du Marais d′Yves
• Reserve Naturelle de Moëze-Oléron
• to Bordeaux (about 120 km from Saintes or 180 km from La Rochelle)

literature

Web links

• official Tourism website of the Charente-Maritime department
• Website of the department