Cognac Travel Guide

 himalia11 Says:  In the street Rue Grande, you will find some half-timbered houses. In medieval times, this street used to be the main street of the town. One of the half-timbered houses that you will find here is the House of the Lieutenant, where the lieutenant-general Pierre Lacombe was... 

 himalia11 Says:  The town gate Saint-Jacques is part of the rampart that surrounded the town and was built in the early 13th century. The rampart had three gates, the porte Saint-Martin to the south, the port Angoumoisine to the east and the porte Saint-Jacques to the west. All except for... 

 himalia11 Says:  The castle of Cognac exists since the 10th century but was rebuilt several times. It’s also called “Château des Valois”, after Jean de Valois who did rebuild the abandoned castle in 1450. The decline started in the 17th century and in the late 18th century, the castle became... 

 himalia11 Says:  The “Place Francois I” is named after Francis I, king of France. He was born in the town's castle in 1494. At the centre of the square, you find a state of the king on horseback. The statue was built in Paris and transported to Cognac by sea and river, and then was... 

 himalia11 Says:  When in Cognac, you need of course visit a Cognac distillery. There are several in the town that offer guided tours, and Hennessy is one where you don’t need a reservation upfront. We had an English guided tour as we didn’t want to wait for the German tour later the day. You... 

 himalia11 Says:  There’s a market hall near the church which was completed in 1871 and is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8 to 13. You here find all kind of vegetables, fruits, lots of cheese and butcher products. It was interesting to stroll over that market. As French seem to love bowels much... 

 himalia11 Says:  The Roman church Saint-Léger (i.e. Saint Leodegar of Poitiers) was built in in 1130. Its facade is typical for the Roman churches in that region, and is the oldest part of the church. The gothic rose window was added in the 15th century. After seeing that threepart portal,... 

 Steve-H Says:  Hundreds of vats, 1000`s of gallons of cognac. Each of these vats hold about 37,000 litres of maturing cognac befor it is put into barrels. 

 Steve-H Says:  Here we are arriving at the distillery, full of enthusiasm.Cognac looks a very dirty place, in fact it's mould! yup, it's a fungus that permeates everything including the barrels containing the cognac. The story goes that once upon a time the villagers scrubbed it all off... 

 sue_stone Says:  This restaurant is located in the hotel we stayed at (see hotel review).We had a delicious 3 course meal here and a great bottle of Bordeaux.It wasn't cheap, but worth it.Restaurant has a terrace with views over the valley 

 Steve-H Says:  There are restaurants all over cognac, remember that like the Spanish they like to close in the afternoon and re-open in the evening. The menus were varied and the predominant flavour was locally produced and fresh, the best of everything. I saw this amazing ham slicing... 

 Steve-H Says:  At each of the Cognac Estates there is a gift shop conveniently located right a the end of the tour and you will be offered samples before you get there. At Remy Martin bottles of Cognac were priced at 50 euros right up to 1300 euros and there are plenty of other goodies to... 

 lorgnierl Says:  ok, you visit the cave, you test a good , a very good cognac, and you have to take the road ...... take care !! 

 Steve-H Says:  This is a very old town, in the 10th century it was a modest little village until it started trading it's eaux-de-viw with the rest of the world.Take your time to look around, look up at the half-timbered houses, notice how small some of the doorways are, there is history...