Days 623-627, 17-21 Feb '16, Saint-Jean-d'Angely. If one were to simply look at our blog, one could assume that France was having the finest, sunniest winter on record. One would be wrong. It's certainly not the coldest as we've had no snow and only a few hard frosts. It's been gale force winds, rain, fog etc quite often. But when it's fine we beat the land-speed record for leaping into the car and heading off to explore. It's not that fine weather is 100% necessary - it just makes it 100% nicer. Friday was fine and off we went to Saint-Jean-d'Angely. Another town going back 2000 odd years, we feel the weight of history upon us every time we leave the house (actually even the house is 200 years old...). Saint-Jean was a major stopping point on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In most part because of the relic of the head of St John the Baptist which was rediscovered in the year 1010 at the abbey (it boggles the mind that they misplaced it for a couple hundred years and it needed rediscovering... but moving on). Saint Jean d'Angely was thus hugely prosperous (thank you pilgrims) for over 500 years until the religious wars of the 1560s meant pillagings and lootings and no more head of St John. Which led to the inevitable downturn of the area as the pilgrims stopped coming. Pretty sure no one aside from us has turned up since to be honest. We (ex-pats in France) frequently make jokes about child-snatchers and alien abductions in France as quite often towns are empty of people. The historic heart of Saint-Jean was a bit like that on Friday. We certainly enjoyed our walk around unencumbered by crowds. We actually believe we discovered the two dumbest beggars in Europe (which is saying something), as we were asked for money twice in the back streets. Seriously people... find yourselves a town with townfolks - profits will go through the roof. Loads of historic stuff to see, not least of which was the big clock pictured above. Not to be simplistic but it does actually sit on Rue Grosse Horloge. That would be the street of the big clock. This is the old town gate of the 12th century ramparts and was rebuilt in 1406. The most accurate way we have of describing Saint Jean is it's very Tudor and just like York in the UK. Except obviously French. Off for Sunday lunch with friends today which is lucky... weather has reverted to form and it's definitely not a jaunting day!