Charente is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente…Charente is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited. In 2019, it had a population of 352,015.