The Golf du Cognac...

... surrounds this lovely old house and vineyards. Its a very restful place. We have played this course many times in our travels around France.

Noisy lake

All the lakes were teeming with noisy frogs croaking so loudly you just wouldn't believe!

Spring flowers

Can you make out all the little primroses and blue bells in this photo? Probably not! but they're there!

Hole in the dell

9th hole

If you look closely behind the trees to the left of the lake you can see the van in its Cognac resting place.

Golf du Cognac

Later on Thursday we drove over to Cognac, the centre of the wine producing area on the charente river. Only those grapes grown in a certain are in France are allowed to be used to produce the drink known as 'Cognac'.

Cathedral and ramparts, Angouleme

Lunchtime in Angouleme

Conservatoire Gabreil Faure

The Angoulenme music school is dedicated to the great French composer Gabriel Faure. It is sited in a square in which the Nazis held French Jews captive during the second world war prior to transporting them to the death capms. There is a memorial stone on the wall to my right in this picture.

5th century building

The Cathedral of St Nartin is even older then the other, dating from the 5th century. It is also made entirely from stone.

Cathedral of St Martin

The interior ....

is bright and made entirely of stone - even the roof is of stone. Its magnificent to behold.

The bell tower

La Cathedral St Pierre in Angouleme...

dates from 1110. It was preceded by two other churches which date back to the 1st century. The present building has 75 stone carved visages on the front facade and a magnificent bell tower of 59 metres.

Opposite view

This is the golf course as seen from the city of Angouleme. On Thursday we went on a walking tour of the city ...

Spring blossoms

We spent three days in Angouleme, playing golf each day and having lovely meals in the club house in the evenings. The cpurse is quite nice. It is an old 9 hole course which has been extended to 18 holes and is very tight in places It was not busy on the days that we were there so it was not dangerous when we were there.

Old Pilgrim stones

Can you see the old stones in better detail in this shot?

and a crucifixion at the 16th hole. Amazingly, this is on the 16th hole. It overlooks the city and is spotlit at night. Angouleme was one of the religious areas which ewere places of rest for the pilgrims on the road to Compostela in Spain. There are very old stones at the base of these statues and I wondered if they were from the time of the great pilgrimages. I never managed to find out

... woodland walks ...

There are also opportunities for hill-walking ...

Both of the old Cathedrals are seen from the course.

Course with a view ..

Angouleme golf course is situated on a hill overlooking the old city on an opposite hill.

George on the 18th

our favourite view of France ...

tne 18th fariway of Angouleme (or any) golf course from the kitchen sink.

Easter in France

George and I took our motor home to France for the Easter break. We left Cork on board the Brittany Ferries beautiful cruise ship the Pont Aven, on Saturday March 31st and arrived in Roscoff, Brittany very ealr the next morning. It was a rainy day and we drove all day until we arrived in Cognac at aboue 6 pm The campsite we had been planning to stay in was still closed so we went further up the river Charent to Jarnac and stayed overnight at the campsite there. We moved on the next day to Angouleme where we stayed at the golf course, giving us ...