Countless people holiday in the Charente Maritime region each year and many have chosen to relocate to this wonderful area.  The bright clear Charente River gently winds its way through the lush green pastoral Department from its source in the Haute Vienne to the Atlantic Ocean, near Rochefort.  On its banks are some of the well-known towns of France, Angoulême, Cognac and Saintes. 

Saintes, founded around 20 BC by the Romans, was originally known as Mediolanum Santonum, and for 150 years was the capital of Aquitania.  The famous amphitheatre and the Arch of Germanicus bear evidence of the importance of this region to the Romans.  However it is also likely that the Celts previously inhabited the area since, rescued from a rubbish pit near the thermal baths, was the only known wooden Epona. Epona was the single Celtic goddess to be honoured by the Romans and during the Gallo-Roman era became the protector of horses, donkeys and mules. This oak carving, standing 16 cm high, can be seen at the Musėe de Saintes. 

During the 100 years war, Saintes was a border town and the site of many hard fought battles between the French and English. It was also heavily damaged during the War of Religions, whilst the 17/18th centuries ushered in a much more tranquil period for the inhabitants of Saintes.

During this more peaceful time, on 25th April 1792, the guillotine was first used.  This famous machine, later known during the French revolution as Madame Guillotine, was not, as many would think, invented by a Monsieur Guillotine.  Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, was born 28th May 1738 in Saintes and spent his childhood there. At first he was interested in the Arts and became a professor of literature in Bordeaux but later studied medicine.  During this time, executions in France were not only public events held in town squares but pretty bloody occasions.   The poor were hanged, but many prisoners were also quartered with the condemned person’s limbs were tied to four oxen and the animals driven in four separate directions. More wealthy criminals could pay for a theoretically less painful death, often by sword or axe but in the hands of an unskilled executioner, these could also be messy and grisly experiences.  Guillotin belonged to a small reform movement that in fact wished to banish the death penalty totally but recognised that this could not be accomplished straight away.  Instead, Guillotin suggested the use of a machine which he believed could cause immediate and painless separation of the head from the body.  He also proposed that the machine be hidden away from the populace and that the execution should be private and dignified. 

The first person to suffer this method of punishment was a highwayman Jacques Nicolas Pelletier.  In 1793 the machine was moved to the Place de la Révolution, Paris, for the beheading of King Louis XVI.  The tumbrel (horse drawn cart) took many well-known French men and women to meet their fate, including Marie Antoinette, Danton, Charlotte Corday and Robespierre, guillotined on 28 July 1794 along with 21 of his followers.  This last beheading signalled the end of the period known as ‘the reign of terror.’ By 1799 the Guillotine had decapitated more than 15,000 people in France and continued to be used until capital punishment was outlawed in France in 1981.

The real inventor of the guillotine is not known as it was used in various different forms around the world including Germany, Italy, Scotland and Persia throughout many centuries.

Finistère may have disappeared from the Shipping Forecast, but Finistère, Department 29, France, is very much with us.  This most westerly region of Brittany in mainland France should be a ‘must’ on any visitor’s list of places to see.  Brittany (formerly Bretagne) is an ancient Celtic country that maintained its independence from France until the end of the fifteenth century.  Today the inhabitants of Brittany are fiercely proud of their Breton culture and nowhere is this more evident than in Finistère...

France and England have been inextricably linked almost from time immemorial and  most of us are aware of the main French personalities who have played a part in shaping their country’s fortunes.  Other leaders of France rate barely in line in our history books. There is one King, almost unknown outside of France, who was instrumental in shaping the futures of France and England for many centuries and by his action created the longest war in our histories...

Driving down to the south of France, across the wonderfully varied countryside, the sun’s warmth working its magic after the cold of winter, it is not easy to think of this region of France as being home to bloodthirsty deeds.

However, between the years 1012 and 1020 what appeared to be a new religion emerged in the Limousin region of France and, gaining strength, spread southwards to the Languedoc, a province famed for its tolerance and liberalism. This was the beginning of a sad period in French history...

Charlemagne

Charlemagne’s life is a jumble of fact and fiction. A great king, he was known throughout the western world from the epic poems recounting his noble deeds, some exaggerated or even invented. While legend tells of his heroic exploits bringing Christianity toall four corners of his empire, he was a ruler whose true story and legacy to Europe were probably even more impressive than the romantic myths surrounding him and his knights. Was he, in fact, a thoroughly modern European?

Nothing has been recorded about his birth and early boyhood, though it is generally thought he was born in 742AD, probably on the borders between Germany and France. When his father died, Charlemagne and his brother shared their inherited empire, but within 3 years his brother had died, and Charlemagne at the age of 29 became ruler of a vast realm. He was King of the Franks, and it was the Franks who gave their name to France, despite the Romans having previously conquered Gaul.

Charlemagne became the ruler of western Europe “by the sword and the cross.” During his lifetime of 71 years, he waged ferocious campaigns across Europe to subdue the infidels and enforce Christianity. At the height of his power,  his empire extended across Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and part of Italy as well as most of France. It was only the French, however, who took Charlemagne to their hearts and he has become inextricably linked with the French nationality. Today most other Europeans know little of him and the debt modern Europe owes him...

They came from out of the mists of ancient times, quietly and peacefully at first, integrating easily to the way of life of the existing population. But hard on their heels came their more aggressive brothers, who battled their way across Europe and finally, finding their place in the sun, settled in France. These people, whose origins remain unclear, had come down from Bohemia and afterwards dominated Europe for over 1,000 years.