Statue François 1er

 
  
   Key entry to the “Etapes du cognac”, a visit to the town serves as an initiation ceremony to the world of cognac. The Office de Tourisme has created a discovery trail through the historic old quarters, of which the Chateau of Francis I is the jewel.
 
   As you go through the cobbled streets leading down to the Charente, try to spot the old workshop signs or the carved fronts of the town houses, for example, the house or a woolcarder in the Rue du Palais; the Bacchus sculpted on the waterspout of a grand house in Rue Magdeleine; a 15^th century tavern in the Rue Traversière.

Porte ancien échevinage

   Cognac has been linked to the cultivation of the vine since the Middle Ages and to trading in wine since the 12^th century. A river town bathed by the Charente, Cognac sent wines, by sea, from ancient vineyards of Poitou as far as Holland and the Scandinavian countries.
 
   During the 17^th century however the trade in wine took a new turn. Distillation, in eliminating the water in the wine, reduced its volume. The subsequent prosperity of cognac opened up for the town new links with the entire world.
 
   Cognac hides its wealth behind the walls of its wine and spirit storehouses, the stones of which have become black through the growth of a mushroom which thrives on the vapour of alcohol. In the old town which nestles against the mediaeval chateau, twisting alleyways alongside old houses go down to the quays. In Cognac the stones breathe…cognac.