This is the continuation of last week’s blog about the walk we did from Rochebeaucourt. Much of the second part was across pleasant if unspectacular countryside. One notable feature was the presence of a number of tiny communes/hamlets (hameaux) of often no more than three or four houses. It’s easy to imagine how these worked in the past, with a bigger house for the landowner and smaller properties for the labourers. It’s less easy to see how they work today with big mechanised fields and farms three or four times the size they were in the past.
Eventually after winding our way through many lanes, woodland, settlements and passing the odd chateau, we came down to the river Nizonne (the boundary between Charente and Dordogne), which was running very high and fast after the recent prolonged recent rains.
We then crossed the main road and climbed back up onto the ridge, where we came to the tiny cluster of houses which is Argentine today. The hamlet takes its name from the fact that in the past there was silver mining and for much of its history it appears to have been a separate (and bigger) community than Rochebeaucourt.
The medieval church, like so many country churches, is now simply a monument. It’s been recently restored by the state and voluntary organisations and now has some modern stained glass, which gives the inside a rather curious red glow.
Heading back to the car we went past relicts of the older, now vanished Argentine: wells, shrines and a very substantial and imposing graveyard.
Finally, back to the car and then home through Rochebeaucourt, which, increasingly it seems, has ruins of its own.
A good day’s walk, and we were very fortunate with the weather, which felt like the beginning of summer. Since then, however, the weather has deteriorated and as we write this blog it is pouring with rain. Again.
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