Culture vultures

Le nom vient d’une pierre sacrée druidique : La Roche Brune.
Aux confins du Limousin et du Poitou, le château de Rochebrune est l’une des maisons fortes entourant à l’origine les terres de Chabanais, exposée en priorité aux raids des comtes de la Marche et de l’évêque de Limoges. La place, devenue anglaise, défendra aussi la principauté de Chabanais dans le conflit entre Richard Cœur de Lion et Philippe Auguste. Le prince Jourdain IV mourra à la croisade. La propriété passée par mariage dans la famille de Matha, puis de Rochechouart, l’édifice, flanqué à l’origine de deux tours rondes devient un véritable château fort aux XIIIème et XIVème siècles. Il sera la résidence des Thouars entre 1345 et 1450. Leur fille Catherine, après un premier mariage avec Gilles de Retz, maréchal de France, épouse Jean de Vendôme.

Jacques Marchand created his ceramic studio in 1988, seduced by the colour of a Charente Limousine fawn stoneware. From the choice and extraction of the clay to the firing of his creations,
Jacques Marchand created his ceramic studio in 1988, seduced by the colour of a Charente Limousine fawn stoneware. From the choice and extraction of the clay to the firing of his creations, Jacques is involved in easy stage. Sculptures, graphics and colorful decors, exuberant or sober, will awaken your curiosity in his gallery studio. His signature is the guarantee that each piece is an original.

Maybe you'll be lucky enough to see him make a " Ponne de type Benest", or a "bujadier de type Thiat" using the traditional method.

Ponne : old washpot (other names : "bujours", " bujadiers",...) These earthenware washpots were black in Benest (Charente)

Covered riding school (20x40 m), obstacle course (50x80 m), training area (20x60 m), boxes, places to clean horses and where they can have shower.

In this charming medieval village, information boards will lead you to some twelve houses which ages span from the 15th century to the 18th century. At the bottom of various alleys and passageways, you will fall upon several timbered houses with mullioned windows, some bearing the vestiges of fortifications.

Spend an interesting and exciting afternoon with our honeybees. Find out more about colonies and their importance to the environment, with hands-on experience of inspecting hives
Spend an interesting and exciting afternoon with our honeybees. Find out more about colonies and their importance to the environment, with hands-on experience of inspecting hives. Open on Monday afternoons, 1-4pm, from April until mid-October, weather permitting. The price is 20 euros per person which includes all equipment and protective clothing, refreshments and honey tasting. 3-day and 6-day courses are also available with accommodation included. Booking is essential by telephone or email (0545 71 22 90 or info@13bees.co.uk).

La 'Butte de frochet' (hillock of Frochet, is a natural area offering ecological as welle as fauna and flora interests. Is is a mineral backbone of white quartz, themnants of the hydrothermal activity of the Oradour-sur-Glane rift towards the end of the primaryera.
The ridge path offers splendid vistas on "Charente Limousine" and on "Basse-Marche".

The heather-covered moor is currently administered by the 'Conservatoire des espaces Naturels du Limousin'. Thus, some endangered bird species such as harriers or nightjars whosenesting area is heather spaces will be able to inhabit the place.

The landscape takes on pink hues at the beginning and at the end of the Summer at the time when ashen heather ans calluna vulgaris are in full bloom.