Real estate trends

According to the scale prepared by La Vie immobilière, overall, apartments in the department go on average for around 1,200 € per m², and the market remains remarkably stable. The average price of houses is just slightly over 100,000 €, in both Angoulême and Cognac.

Traditional housing

With rarely more than one floor, built of white limestone and extremely refined, Charentes homes have smooth walls, except for a few moldings and other sculpted features. Less prestigious homes are often built of fieldstone, with cut stone reserved for framing structures and openings. Roofs are framed mainly of oak and covered with red-orange to ocher tiles, with a gentle, 30% pitch.

Location

Located 120 km northeast of Bordeaux, Angoulême is served by the TGV (about 2 h 20 min from Paris). It takes another 45 minutes to reach Cognac. Lyon and London are accessible by air from the Poitiers airport.

Scenery and activities

Explore the department by following the Charente. To the North, amid green meadows and chestnut forests, you will find manmade lakes that regulate the flow of the waterway nicknamed "the happy river." Upstream from Angoulême, it splits into a multiplicity of branches encircling dozens of islets. Almost every village has one of the 400 Romanesque churches spread around the department.

Between Angoulême and Cognac, the gently flowing Charente, interspersed with locks, becomes navigable. Its banks, adorned with reeds and water iris, open onto limestone cliffs and vineyard planted slopes where you can explore châteaux, farms and mills. Historically used for shipping, the river used to carry scows, typical boats of the region: loaded with grain, Angoulême paper or Cognac, they wended their way to Rochefort, returning with fish, salt or coal.

Farther along, Jarnac la Blanche is where the wine growing region starts, devoted to Cognac and to pineau des Charentes. Wine warehouses and trading companies follow on one another's heels; to be enjoyed with your eyes… or your palate.

Weather

Bathing in a classical maritime climate, Charente knows cool, rainy winters, and dry, mild summers (20° C on average). Average annual rainfall is nearly 800 mm, with winter getting twice the rainfall of summer.

In town

• Angoulême: built on a promontory overlooking the river, the Charente prefecture holds a rich cultural heritage within its ramparts. It is also a city dedicated to pictures: it welcomes the International Comics Festival every year, and has several animated film studios.
• Cognac: The city of François 1er lives in tune with its famous eau de vie and related industries (cooperage, glassworks…). It also welcomes the Police Film Festival every year.