Cognac

Near Centre-ville Cognac

The last couple of days have been about driving.  After a late night out having dinner I decided that a short drive to Cognac was the order of the day.  Short in this context was about 100 kilometres.  As the previous days have been, there was a heavy overcast and the threat of drizzle although none eventuated.  The temperatures remained stubbornly at around 7°. 

Much of the drive was on a motorway so we got there quite quickly.  It was clear to see that making cognac made this town rather wealthy.  The houses looked good, there were the odd designer shops and the old town was well preserved.  We wandered through streets that had been walked on for centuries.  There were beautiful old houses, a Chateau that was now used for other things but had been the residence of a King of France in the 15^th century.  The town is situated by the Charente River where there are two major Cognac houses on its banks.  The medieval town was beautiful and we could have lost ourselves in it for hours but a need to eat forced us to find a nice little restaurant where we had some very nice soup and a lovely quiche. After lunch we went looking for a post office which we finally found.  The search provided an opportunity to further explore the town.  As luck would have it Le bureau de la Poste was just around the corner from the car which I missed completely.

Barge on the River Charente - Cognac

Instead of taking the motorway back we took the back roads and drove through another town with a history, Saintes.  We hit it at rush hour. Even in this small town the congestion was like it gets in Wellington at rush hour.  We were going to stop but finding a park looked like near impossible and the light was beginning to fade.  So we continued driving through the countryside.  Calling in at another town called Rochefort that had been built for the navy a century or so ago. 

It was dark by the time we got back to the apartment and I was really tired from the driving.  The visibility was not good; they don’t have as many street lights as in Wellington and some of the streets I had to drive are very narrow requiring some significant judgement to avoid an insurance issue later.

It was a relief to get back to the apartment and relax.