We often stop there for one night on the way to Futuroscope. However, the prefecture of Vienne, where more than 30,000 students live, deserves a stop in itself, between its religious buildings steeped in history, its almost pedestrian city center, its artisan shops and its gourmet addresses, from snack to dinner.
Day 1
10 a.m. Hundred bell towers
Hadn’t Poitiers been called “the city of a hundred steeples”? There are not a hundred of them, but the lover of holy stones will still find plenty to enjoy in the old town. Notre-Dame-la-Grande (1) East the best known of these churches, thanks to a sumptuous Romanesque facade, a book of images that runs from the Old to the New Testament. In front of its square, where an open-air market is held on Saturdays, half-timbered houses watch over it.
Gothic island in Romanesque earth, the Saint-Pierre cathedral of Poitiers (2) is larger, wider, higher than Notre-Dame-la-Grande, with which it is often confused. Inside, a large Clicquot organ and one of the oldest in situ stained glass windows in France, dating from the 12th century.e century and 8 meters high, face each other.
The Sainte-Radegonde church, named after the most popular saint of Poitiers, combines these two influences: as Gothic as the cathedral, it nevertheless has a choir and a bell tower close to the Romanesque. Three thousand ex-votos adorn it, including an astonishing “Thank you for the great war” signed P de la R for “president of the Republic”, Raymond Poincaré in this case. Many, very recent, give thanks for academic successes.
11:30 a.m. Town Halls
The old town, in the process of becoming pedestrianized, is home to some very beautiful private mansions: the Hôtel Fumé (3), which has become a faculty of human sciences and arts, aligns two buildings, the first rather sober, the second much more elaborate; the Beaucé hotel, former property of a cloth merchant, has particularly original windows, which follow the curve of the staircase. A little further on, the large room of the courthouse, 50 meters long by 17 meters wide, a masterpiece of Angevin Gothic, houses an immense fireplace, and will soon be used as an exhibition and performance hall.
12:30 p.m. Holy wine
To stay in the religious atmosphere, we have lunch at the restaurant Les Archives (4). Like the Mercure Hotel to which it is linked, it is located in a former church. Meat lovers will appreciate the succulent crying tiger (beef fillet marinated in soy), vegetarians the excellent chard tart. The hotel’s suites are installed between the woodwork that held the bell and the vaults, which gives the place a unique character.
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