Loudun, Mirebeau & Lencloître.

Long and gentle undulations.

Geography and agriculture bring many common elements to all parts of the Département of la Vienne. There is little rough terrain and generally outcrops have long been claimed as the foundations of settlements able to protect their minor heights and survey their surroundings for the approach of enemies. Otherwise the landscape is almost entirely devoted to cereal crops of one form or another. Yet it is only in the north western corner that one can say with total conviction that this is the Great Plain of Poitou. Here the undulations are long and gentle. By high summer golden acres of stubble interspersed with patches of sunflowers spread out to the horizon.

A ship aground on a Loudun roundabout is one of the town's remarkable municipal flower arrangements.

A Sub-Prefecture town with a past.

Loudun is a Sub-Prefecture town and the commercial centre. It's mediaeval history is confirmed by the 'Tour Carrée' (the Square Tower) which stands above the town's highest point and which served as a watch tower against any marauders.

Moncontour, like Loudun, is dominated by a square watch-tower. Known here as the 'Donjon' such edifices were often used as jails. From being a tower the term on being transferred to English - dungeon - for some reason becomes a pit!

A lake for modern-day skirmishers.

A little south on the major road the N147, as one approaches the Maison de pays du Loudonais (see margin) ancient windmills stand on the edge of the escarpment and one gets an unrivalled view of the Great Plain. It seems endless and entirely agricultural but occasional copses provide the hint that it is littered with hamlets and villages. They are often partly hidden in small river valleys or otherwise clustered around old fortifications on the higher ground. Moncontour, on the western boundary has a watch tower similar to that of Loudun and (much more relevant to modern-day skirmishers) a large lake offering water sports and other leisure facilities.

Great pollarded beech trees stand sentinel to provide shelter and shade for the monthly market.

An agricultural metropolis.

To the east the land rolls gently on with melon fields replacing some of the acres of corn as far as Lencloître. This small town seems as inoffensive and pleasantly somnolent as many such in France - where disturbing a local cafe owner for a coffee or a glass of wine seems like a transgression. On the other hand should you happen here on the morning of the first Monday of a month you will be overwhelmed by a huge open air markets that transforms the place into an agricultural metropolis.

Long-haired donkeys and local wine.

Mirebeau is roughly midway between Loudun and Poitiers. The remains of its perimeter fortifications have managed to continue their work by excluding the major roads from the town centre. Within the walls there's a maze of narrow streets from which you may be disgorged into a large central square. Each August the town is host to La Fête de l'Âne (The Fête of the Asses) which is one of the principal showpieces for a unique local breed of long-haired donkey known as the Baudets du Poitou.

A surfeit of exotic beasts.

Strangely, although the region hosts collections of monkeys, snakes and vultures, the native, docile and endangered species does not seem to be a feature of any of the local attractions.

The Wines of Haut-Poitou.

The wine producing area of Haut-Poitou - mostly spread between Mirebeau and Neuville-du-Poitou - benefits from (says the publicity) a climate less dry than Aquitaine but sunnier than Touraine and has produced wines from time immemorial. They were popular with Eleanor of Aquitaine and their export reached its zenith in the XVIII century. More pragmatically they were given VDQS status - a grading secondary only to Appellation Contrôlée - in 1970. A Route du Vin is well signposted through the villages and vineyards and an information brochure can be obtained at Tourist Offices.