Experience the best of Cognac

Cognac stands on the Charente, in the heart of the vineyards of the Charente département. The town gave its name to the brandy distilled from white wine in copper pot stills and aged in French oak, and merchant houses line the river with long cellars. Their walls are stained black by a fungus that feeds on the spirit evaporating from the barrels, the so-called angels' share. Francis I, king of France, was born in the town's château in 1494.

The old town has narrow lanes, half-timbered houses and the Romanesque church of Saint-Léger, and a riverside public garden. Flat-bottomed boats carry visitors along the Charente. Jarnac, where the president François Mitterrand was born, lies upstream, Angoulême is to the east, Saintes, with its Roman arch and amphitheatre, lies downstream, and the Atlantic coast at La Rochelle is to the west.

Distilling runs through the winter, when the stills glow in the farm sheds. Pineau des Charentes, an aperitif of grape juice and young cognac, is the local drink, with Charentais melons, rich butter from the dairies and mussels and oysters from the coast. The vines are green all summer and picked in autumn.