Advent Postcards, Tusson Charente

 

Advent postcards, Tusson, Charente

Advent day twenty-three

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from Tusson in the Charente, an easy twenty-kilometre bike ride from home. This means it’s not only a popular cycling destination for us, but also our morning coffee stop if we are cycling the sixty kilometres to Angoulême. It is also somewhere that holds some significant memories.

 

Way back in 2019, when Covid-19 was just a whisper in the newspapers, we created our Christmas Day bike ride and picnic tradition, and Tusson was the location we picked to pop open the Champagne and tuck into our feast. It was also Tusson that was the destination for our first post lockdown adventure in May 2020. Safely spaced, but cycling together with Ed, Pearl and our friends, we took it in turns to choose our takeaway cakes from Gâteaux, a popular tea shop in Tusson, before heading back to our Christmas Day picnic tables to enjoy an outdoor freedom treat.

 

The delights of Gateaux salon de thé

There is a lot more to Tusson than just our memories though as it is also a significant stage on the Chemins de Saint-Jacques pilgrimage route. The 15^th century church is dedicated to Saint-Jacques, so it’s not surprising that the entrance is home to a carved statue of him as well as a contemporary sculpture of a pilgrim, and the inside also has some striking wall paintings. As you take your time to explore the narrow lanes of Tusson, many with stunning flower borders, you will also find statutes, stained-glass and pottery workshops, and many noble medieval buildings.

 

The other side of the main road there is a 19^th century lavoir (wash house) that hides an unusual secret, something we only discovered this summer. To the left of the lavoir, and up some stone steps, it is possible to see part of an ancient underground aqueduct that used to bring water to the old priory. Running behind (and completely hidden from) the main road are the remains of two priories (a men’s and a women’s), a medieval monastic garden and the biggest surprise for us, an adapted sensory garden for people with autism. It is definitely a village that deserves the time to explore its many treasures and if this isn’t enough, just outside of the village there are megaliths and tumuli dating back to the 5^th millennium BC.

Advent postcards, Tumulus de Bougon, Deux-Sèvres

 

Advent postcard, Tumulus de Bougon, Deux-Sèvres

Advent day nineteen

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard comes from the Tumulus de Bougon museum in the Deux-Sevres where we spent a hot Sunday at the beginning of July.

 

Our visit had been timed to take full advantage of the FREE museum entry on the 1^st Sunday of each month, saving 6€ each, and was part of my 2023 plan to visit as many local museums as I could fit in around work. The only tourist information point in Chef-Boutonne is us at the Château and rather than just hand out leaflets, I wanted to be better able to recommend other places for our visitors. I quickly developed museum envy. Rather than our tiny museum in Javarzay, that is run by the local council, Tumulus de Bougon is on a huge site with a restaurant, indoor exhibits and exhibition space, plus the numerous burial mounds in the outdoor park, all run by the Deux-Sèvres Department. 

 

After a coffee we picked up the audio guides, that we could use in English, and started our visit indoors, learning about seven million years of history and the evolution of man. It was fascinating, but too much for my brain to take in on one visit, which gives us a great opportunity to return. This area in France has a number of standing stones, dolmens and megaliths, often found in woods or fields, but also including one in a residential street in Poitiers. There are many legends that tell tales of giants and fairies moving these huge stones around, but we now know a lot more about them than fairy tales. The first thing I learned was that these tabletop stones or pierre levée are actually the three entrance stones to a long-eroded burial mound – which seemed so obvious when it was pointed out, but not something I’d ever considered before. The museum is home to round and long burial mounds, many of which you can access some of the inner chambers, which is properly exciting for children of all ages. We had a blast exploring and admiring the amazing construction work that predates Stonehenge. 

Pierre Levée, Poitiers

Our day continued with a picnic in the neighbouring village of Pamproux where we then set off on a Terra Aventura bike ride treasure hunt, that gave us even more local history to discover. I can 100% recommend a visit here.