=Poitiers.=--A large town on a flat raised area of rock, and famous for its beautiful Romanesque churches: (1) Notre Dame-la-Grande, eleventh and twelfth centuries; (2) Cathedral of St. Pierre, twelfth century, with Gothic west end and towers, choir-stalls 1235 to 1257, stained glass at each end, twelfth and thirteenth centuries; (3) St. Hilaire-le-Grand, tenth and eleventh centuries, on Roman site, has seven naves; (4) St. Porchaire, beautiful eleventh-century tower; (5) St. Radegonde, chiefly eleventh century, tomb of St. Radegonde; (6) Church of Montierneuf belonged to eleventh-century abbey, and has part of choir as old; (7) Temple of St. John, a baptistery of Early Christian date, built A.D. 320 to 330; Palais de Justice includes the old ducal palace; hall of Romanesque and Gothic periods; keep, with four towers, fifteenth century; ramparts of town standing at southern corner, and at the north are the ruins of the château, twelfth and fourteenth centuries; megalith called Pierre Levée in the suburb of St. Saturnin. =Vivonne.=--A village with a twelfth-century church. =Couhé-Vérac.=--A large and not very interesting village. =Chaunay.=--A small village with an interesting twelfth-century church. =Ruffec.=--A small town with a few old houses, and a church with a richly carved Romanesque western façade. =Mansle.=--A pretty village on the Charente with a twelfth-century church. =Tourriers.=--A small village with ruined château, and a church of the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Poitiers is the historic capital of Poitou, a province of France, which, together with all the country between the Loire and the Pyrenees, was declared in the Treaty of Bretigny to belong to England as late as the year 1360, when Normandy had been an integral part of France for more than 150 years. The sovereignty of Edward III. being maintained by force of arms only, it was inevitable that his advancing age and the illness of the Black Prince should foreshadow the early loss of such unwieldy possessions. By 1372, when Bertrand du Guesclin, the Breton hero, had been made Constable of France, the English were rapidly losing their hold. In 1377 both Edward III. and his son were dead, and the whole of the country south of the Loire had returned to its natural rulers.