Considering how much travel literature is given over to it, one could be forgiven for thinking Cognac the capital of Charente. There are plenty of distillery visits and dégustations, but there is more to the town than brandy. The great Renaissance king François I, for instance, was born in its château in 1494, and there is wealth of Romanesque churches in the surrounding countryside. The church at Aubeterre, on the southern edge of the département, is of particular interest; carved into the bedrock of the town, it is one of the oldest in France. It was used as an ossuary until the 18th century.
Other signs of the distant past are the amphitheatre des Bouchauds (capacity: 5 or 6,000 people) and the Gallo-Roman sanctuary of Chassenon, with its thermal springs.
One of the most pleasurable ways of exploring this département has to be by boat; the placid Charente is navigable from Angoulême to the sea.
