What to Do in Poitiers, the Futuroscope and the Marais Poitevin

Two thousand years of stone, a heart still young

Poitiers, a City of Art and History

Nine centuries on, the exuberant façade of Notre-Dame-la-Grande still stops passers-by in their tracks. In the sunlight playing over its carved reliefs, or in the coloured bursts of its night-time illuminations, fantastical creatures and biblical scenes tell of ancient times. A few steps into the historic centre reveal further treasures: Gallo-Roman remains, the Saint-Hilaire church on the Way of St James, and the Palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine, where Eleanor of Aquitaine once held court.

You can feel the particular energy of a university town here, spilling onto café terraces, into shops, into cultural venues. It knows how to slow down too, in the Parc de Blossac or along the Clain riverbank below it. From there, head down to Île Tison to rent a paddleboard or soak up the riverside guinguette atmosphere.

A journey to the 11th century, in the Valley of the Frescoes

Saint-Savin, Chauvigny and Montmorillon

Push open the door of the Abbey of Saint-Savin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you come face to face with frescoes nearly a thousand years old. The colours and sheer scale impose a hush: you look up, you whisper, you marvel. Outside, the Gartempe river offers its banks for a picnic of local produce, while the Valley of the Frescoes strings Romanesque churches all along the road.

Next comes Chauvigny, where five castles still stand shoulder to shoulder on the same ridge, among cobbled streets and the birds of prey wheeling through the Géants du Ciel show. The day ends in Montmorillon, where the air smells of ink and sugar: in the Cité de l’Écrit, the town’s book quarter, you browse an old novel before giving in to a macaron, a local institution since the 17th century.

Living ruins and a cabinet of wonders

La Mothe-Chandeniers and Oiron, two extraordinary castles

Ivy climbs the turrets, and the moat reflects stone scorched by a fire that ravaged the castle in 1932: at la Mothe-Chandeniers, nature has settled in alongside the ruins, to the point of turning them into a work of art in their own right. Abandoned for more than eighty years, the castle was bought back in 2018 through crowdfunding: today, more than 27,000 “co-châtelains”, from over a hundred countries, are its co-owners.

Oiron takes the opposite tack: in Renaissance rooms lined with gilded wood panelling, the Curios & Mirabilia collection slips a unicorn horn, or portraits of schoolchildren by Christian Boltanski, in among 16th-century frescoes. A true cabinet of curiosities, castle-sized.

Time has stopped here, take as much of it as you like

The Marais Poitevin, aka Green Venice

You climb into a flat-bottomed boat, and the Marais Poitevin opens up and closes back in like a maze of greenery. Canals lined with pollarded ash trees, a silence broken only by birdsong. Truth is, it’s nature itself that sings and enchants us. A kingfisher flashes past, a dragonfly comes to say hello. You take your time watching them, sketching them, with the local flora as a backdrop.

You moor at Coulon, Arçais or La Garette, colourful-shuttered marsh villages easily linked by the Vélo Francette cycle route. You pedal on until you find the perfect picnic spot — and there are plenty, across a regional nature park spanning 2,000 square kilometres.

Experience: Les Oiseaux du Marais Poitevin, a bird park in Saint-Hilaire-la-Palud, where more than 80 species (herons, storks, ibises) can be spotted along a shaded trail.