zizzles

This is my first post, but I've been avidly reading the forum, I love it!

We're going to Europe in October/November and have been offered free use of a cottage in Civray (Charente) in France.

This is how the area has been described to us:
"It is pretty much off the beaten track but some very attractive villages nearby to explore. The closest city is Poitiers which is an interesting old University city. Here is information about the area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civray,_Vienne"

We are two women aged 50s - 60s who quickly grabbed cheap Europe tickets during a short airfare promotion without thinking much about the consequences ..... we're now trying to decide where we'll go for 7 weeks, and realising that we could be up for lots of expense. Hence this cottage offer is very attractive.

We've decided we're going to UK, France and Italy for roughly the same period in each country. UK itinerary is quickly being sorted by commitments with friends. Assuming that cold weather will affect the north before the south, we're thinking:

2nd - 16th Oct UK 15 days
18th - 30th Oct France 13 days
1st - 16th Nov Italy 16 days (possibly following indiancouple's 2013 itinerary)
overnight train
17th - 20th Nov Paris 4 days
flying out of Paris

I got terribly enthusiastic about Stu Dudley's Provence/French Riviera itinerary before the Civray cottage offer.

We have no idea what this area is like, hoping to get some feedback from you to help us decide. We want to see "rural France" which we imagine means medieval villages, châteaux, winding country roads, beautiful countryside, basically to see how the people live and to experience wonderful food, during the 13 available days (above). I've dreamed of visiting country France since reading Daphne Du Maurier's "The Scapegoat". We speak French, Spanish and English in case that matters.

Whichever part of France we end up in, we've got vague ideas of getting there by (overnight?) train from Scotland. We expect to rent a car whenever we're not staying in big cities.

Thank you so much in advance.

Robert2533

I haven't been in the area in awhile, but Civray is a small village about two hours east of La Rochelle and northeast of Cognac, and not far from Limoges (porcelain). It's primarily farm land. You will need a car to get around.

PalenQ

Well they have extra big cows in Charente. Maybe nice but not a whole lot there to excite except rural France - I've biked through it - nice enough but if you haven't been to France I'd suggest yes Provence (Avignon-Arles area) and or the French Riviera where in both you have a mind-boggling number of stupendous sites within a small area - especially nice with a car.

but for pure rural France IME Charente is fine but some may find it rather boring after a while - but like anywhere in France there are nice things just not so famous or ballyhooed as in other parts like the other two regions.

Cognac is a neat wine (cognac?) town - La Rochelle is a stunning port - Poitiers and Angouleme - I've stayed in both overnight and they are lovely old towns - again to savor the rural life it's great for touring around you may run out of interesting places after a few days - that's my subjective take on it after biking thru it a few times and driving other times.

<Whichever part of France we end up in, we've got vague ideas of getting there by (overnight?) train from Scotland. We expect to rent a car whenever we're not staying in big cities.>

A long journey and cost could more than flying say from Scotland to somewhere in southern France and the drive down there from Calais would be a long one too (or Paris) - adds to the cost of car rental and petro and skuy-high autoroute tolls - but Calendonian Sleeper Trains run that route to London nightly ex Sat I think - arrive in Euston Station London - transfer to St Pancaras for Eurostar trains to Frethun - first station in France - near Calais or onto Lille or Paris.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/plan-your...donian-sleeper

for lots on night trains and trains in general in case you go to Italy by train - if doing cities that makes sense as cars are off-limits now in many Italian city centres - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. www.trenitalia.com has all the scheudles and fares for Italian trains.

Or you could take the Eurostar to Paris and blast south on TGV trains going up to nearly 190 mph - www.voyages-sncf.com has all the fares and schedules - advance purchase can slash fares dramatically.

Michael

You will have a car, I presume. If not, forget about it.

You are within driving distance of most of the places represented by these pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...9973/show?rb=1

Get the Michelin map and the Green Guide for that region and start looking at the excursion possibilities from your central location. BTW, click on "show info" in the slide show and the name of the locations will appear.

rhon

As already said, you will need a car. While we have not visited this area specifically, we have stayed a week in the Charente. It is definitely rural, but there are some lovely towns and villages and beautiful country and we really enjoyed our stay. As PalenQ says and from our own experiences , there are often lovely places around that are less well known, but can still result in a rewarding stay. And free accommodation !!! And there seems to be a market twice a week.

Perhaps this will give you some ideas . The photos say they are within 10 kms of Civray and there looks to be some pretty and interesting places.

http://www.francethisway.com/places/a/civray-vienne.php

http://www.villagesdefrance.free.fr/index.htm
http://www.les-plus-beaux-villages-de-france.org/en
http://www.france-voyage.com/en/

These are also good for browsing.

Bon voyage.

PalenQ

Photos look neat - not a tourist town it seems at all - and I did see what looked like a cafe/tabac - a village cafe - be sure there is one - and an epicerie selling basic food stuffs (at high prices sometimes - stock up in say Poitiers or some nearby city with supermarkets.

But a cafe is to me essential just to have a grand creme and sit with the locals - probably farm types and some city swellers who have second houses here - a cafe that also serves food would be net - the midi noon meal in some of those places can be a great deal and with down-home French food. A Boulangeries of course is also a must - sometimes in small villages a cafe or epicerie takes over break selling from bread brought it - a boulanerie will probably bake their own bread and mouthwatering pastries - like croissant beurre ou naturel and pain au chocolate on the premises - join the village crowd every morning and evening to get a fresh baguette or some other type of bread.

In France bread is too old to use from one meal to the next it seems - older folks make trompe au lait from day-old bread - milk and crusty old bread for a morning meal. Practice tis fading however and more and more folk don't discard the bread from one meal to another - yet fresh bread anytime a main meal is an asoblute must.

Thanks rhon for the pictures that told me a thousand words on this neat probably way off-the-beaten-path small village.

PalenQ

Sounds like you've never been to France before - at least outside of Paris and if so I would split your time - a week in the Charante and then a more famous place like Provence - Avignon/Arles area - a nice drive there from Civray.

StuDudley

We were there for just a tad west of Poitiers last year for 3 nights, and had a wonderful time in the area. Poitiers itself was really a surprise. Get the walking itinerary from the TI & follow it.

Here is our itinerary for last year. The page numbers refer to the Michelin Green Guide that we used.

Aug 20 Wed
Arrive CDG at 11:10
Take 2:09 TGV to Poitiers, arrives at 4:41
Pick up car & drive to Cuzay sur Vonne - arrive at 6:15
Chateau de Curzay
Dinner at Chateau * XXX Confirmed 8:00

Aug 21 Thurs
Drive #6 pg 293, 318 counter-clockwise
Chauvigny* pg 317 1 hr from Gite. Leave gite at 9
Montmorillon pg 321
Abbey St Savin** pg 314 10-7
Angles sur l'Anglin* pg 313
Archigmy
Musee de la Ferme acadienne 3-7
Ch de Touffou* 10-12 2-6
Dinner at Aub Le Centre Poitou XX red man 05 49 60 90 15 in Coulombiers Confirmed 8:00

Aug 22 Friday
Driving tour #3 pg 324, 347
Parthenay* pg 345 45 mins from Gite. Leave gite at 9:15
Oiron** pg 352 Chateau 10:30-6
Thouars* Old Town pg 349
Loudun pg 309

Aug 23 Sat

Niort* pg 326

Here is my wife's Shutterfly book from this trip - which also included 2 weeks on the Ile de Re & 2 weeks in the Loire valley. The Civrey area is pages 4-15, and Poitiers is 42-44. Rochefort & La Rochelle are there too - but we had already visited La Rochelle about 4-5 years earlier and the pictures are limited in this 2014 book.

https://stududley.shutterfly.com/24

Click "Full screen"

Because of Shutterfly software errors that they can't seem to fix - many captions are truncated or missing.

Stu Dudley

PalenQ

La Rochelle is also a possible drive - a three-star Michelin green guide city and superb seaside town. Stu has pointed out how many net but rather untouristed places you can easily go.

tuscanlifeedit

We were in the Charente area, north of Niort, for a week in a grand house with several people.

The country side and nearby towns were quiet, but we toured a lot and enjoyed it all.

It was sort of chosen for us by the needs of the group and an available large house/estate, but I have never regretted it. It was lovely and found enough to do.

zizzles

Thank you so much for your feedback, ideas and wonderful photos and links ..... you've sold us, well and truly!

Once we've sorted our UK arrangements we'll be back if we need to ask for more specific help.

Thanks again!