This village in the heart of Grande-Champagne bears witness to a rich past and even today, maintains traces of an unusual history. Lignières-Sonneville gained its name from the culture of flax, today replaced by the vine.
La Petite Maison du Lin
Originally a sheep pen, this is now a reconstruction of the living room of a Charentais weaver during the Second Empire. You’ll see the bed with its warming pan that prevented freezing cold nights, a cassotte to wash your hands and the dining table, set for a meal !
Upstairs is a demonstration of linen making. Every year, workshops for weaving linen and embroidery with a bobbin are organised.
La Charmille
Formerly a farm where vines and cereals were grown and sheep raised. It’s a maison à balet, typically Charentais with an external staircase, protected from the weather, that leads to the main room. The banisters were used to dry material that had been dyed or simply washed. This is a listed building due to the magnificent timber frame.
Let’s go on a bit farther
Stroll through the garden of scents where you’ll spot several washhouses. Lignières was inhabited in the Celtic era because of the availability of water that is also essential for recovering the flax fibre found in the stem; it’s known as retting.
And to finish, the Notre-Dame church
It was built over the remains of a Celtic temple that honoured a goddess of fertility but is now dedicated to the Virgin Mary …