Aubeterre sur Dronne

It must be getting close to Fleur's birthday as her grandma (Franca's mum) has arrived in Sigogne, we marked the occasion with a trip out to Aubeterre sur Dronne. Being autumn we managed to see all 4 seasons during our visit. We arrived in bright sunshine, lunched through an April shower and were attacked by a hail storm when walking from one end of this picturesque village to the other.

Aubeterre is one of the 20 best villages in France according to some body or other, but I can't remember which. the village is quite small, has a very neat little square which would obviously be full of tourists eating and drinking in the summer, but I could not help but think that the villaged looked pretty lifeless at this time of year even by French standards, probably way too many holiday homes here.

Aubeterre has an amazing church carved out of a rock face, with some of the best accoustics I have ever come across. To be honest there is not that much to see in the village, the Church being the highlight, there are the usual picturesque houses clinging to the rock face, 2 very nicely restored but unspectacular churches and a monastery which been turned into an old peoples home so you can only visit the chapel, and have to peer through a glass door to see the cloister. I think it is a nice place to stop and visit on the way to somewhere else, it certainly has one atmosphere in summer and a totally different one once the tourists have gone home.