Where to Stay in Poitiers, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

What is Poitiers known for?

Poitiers is known for its churches, the city of a hundred bell-towers. The Église Notre-Dame la Grande and its carved Romanesque front lead a long roll of them across the old town. A great university gives the streets their crowds.

Add the Musée Sainte-Croix, the Church Saint-Hilaire le Grand, and the église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers, and the historic city stands clear.

What are the main landmarks in Poitiers?

Poitiers wears its landmarks as churches. The Église Notre-Dame la Grande shows the finest carved Romanesque front, while the Church Saint-Hilaire le Grand and the église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers keep two more of the oldest sanctuaries. Museums hold the rest of the story.

The Musée Sainte-Croix and the musée Rupert-de-Chièvres gather the art and the city's deep past, and the Église Saint-Porchaire de Poitiers and the Church of Saint-Jean de Montierneuf add to the roll of towers.

What is the history of Poitiers?

Poitiers holds one of the deepest church histories in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the old capital of Poitou. Faith built the city. High on a spur inside a bend of the Clain, it grew as a stronghold of early Christianity, and the Church Saint-Hilaire le Grand carries the name of the bishop-scholar who made it a centre of the western church, while the église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers keeps the memory of the queen who founded a great convent here.

The Romanesque age crowned it. The carved west front of the Église Notre-Dame la Grande is among the masterworks of that art, one of scores of towers that earned the city its name of a hundred bell-towers. A university took root in the later Middle Ages and has shaped the town ever since.

Older houses like the Maison des Trois Clous still stand in the lanes, and the Musée Sainte-Croix now holds the layered past dug from beneath the streets. The city is that long weave of church, scholarship, and stone.

Where is Poitiers?

Poitiers stands in the north of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the historic capital of Poitou. A river loop shapes the site. The old town rises on a high spur nearly ringed by a bend of the Clain, with the Église Notre-Dame la Grande near its crown.

The lower streets and the église Sainte-Radegonde de Poitiers drop toward the water below.

What is the climate of Poitiers?

Poitiers has a mild, moist climate on the threshold between coast and inland, in the north of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Winters stay cool and grey. Frost and damp come and go rather than deep cold, and snow is uncommon on the spur above the Clain.

Summers are warm and long, the kind that fills the terraces below the Église Notre-Dame la Grande. Rain falls in every season on the spur above the Clain.

How do you get to Poitiers?

Poitiers sits on the main rail spine crossing Nouvelle-Aquitaine, so most visitors arrive by train. The station lies in the valley below the old town, a climb up to the spur where the Église Notre-Dame la Grande stands. Roads reach the city across the plateaus of Poitou.

Once in the upper town the churches, the Musée Sainte-Croix, and the market squares all sit close enough to cross on foot. It is a walking city.