Lots of History Around Here

I'm in the Charente-Maritime region now,  Specifically the town of St. Jean d'Angely. There's no direct evidence of the ocean but its pretty cold and there are an awful lot of seafood restaurants. 

I've had a cold for the past couple of days and today it seems a lot worse so its time to start popping some serious vitamin C. Tomorrow's destination is a pretty big city called Saintes and if I land in a good enough cheap enough place I might take Saturday off. 

The "official" camino organization is the Confraternity of St. James points out that this route is not well defined and that its largely up to pilgrims to design their own route. The combination of Google Maps and the Trip Advisor app are really coming in handy. GM gets me into town and TA's "point me there" gets me to the door. If I don't feel better tomorrow morning I'll be asking GM for the shortest route to Saintes without walking on the highway. 

The history around here ranges all the way from the roman era, through the Middle Ages and all the way up to WWII so there's lots of interesting historical layers to consider while walking around. A decent example of that is the Eglise St. Hillaire in Melle, which is an 11th century church with a relief sculpture of the emperor Constantine on the side. That's him on the horse.