The best traffic-free bike rides around Cersay

The contemporary art center of national interest, La Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc de Thouars, is today a leading venue for contemporary art in the western region. Along with the Château d’Oiron and the Syndicat Mixte de la Vallée du Thouet, which runs a program of public commissions for contemporary works, the art center's work is carried out in partnership across the entire territory of the Pays Thouarsais community of communes and, more broadly, in the northern part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Within the region, the art center is a recognized player in the Astre plastic and visual arts network. Developing an artistic project that takes into account its geographical location and its architectural envelope, a neo-Gothic chapel, the art center maintains a privileged relationship with the heritage of Thouars. Guest artists, hosted for residencies or exhibitions, appropriate the chapel space by creating an original work designed for the venue. They also bring their perspective to the city, urban planning, landscape, and rural areas of the Thouars region and the Thouet Valley. Since 1993, nearly a hundred artists have been invited for residencies or exhibition projects. In recent years, the art center has paid particular attention to emerging artists from art schools, particularly those from the regional Le Grand Huit network. In addition to its programming, the art center also engages in outreach activities in the form of off-site exhibitions, workshops, and events (meetings, lectures, and workshops). A mobile device, La Mar(g)elle, was created in 2015 by the artist Marie-Ange Guilleminot to offer interventions in partner locations, particularly within schools and structures in the social and medical sectors. For its educational action, the art center benefits from the action of the municipal art school of Thouars, to which it is connected within the visual arts department of the City of Thouars.

whatever the angle of view or the time of day, this ancient abbey calls out

If you want to stay, or marriage use this link: https://chateaudemarson.fr/histoire/

Very pretty setting on the edge of the town's lake. Too bad it's impossible to go around it by bike.

In 1147, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, built a fortified castle on top of the hill and surrounded it with fortifications. Of the castle, only the chapel, which became a parish church in the 17th century, and of the ramparts, only the eastern part, remain. But this ancient fortified city perched on a limestone hill has retained its old-world charm and offers, along its narrow streets, behind high tuffeau walls, or in the embrasure of a vast portal, fleeting views of old aristocratic manors or rich residences in the colours of Anjou.

The Market Square is lined with houses whose construction dates from the 14th to the 19th century: the oldest house in the town (probably 1399) at no. 3, the old town house at no. 15 and the old Barony Registry (16th century) at no. 42.

The vineyard Location: the appellation area includes 20 communes in Maine-et-Loire, 9 in Vienne and 2 in Deux-Sèvres. Surface area: 550 ha Soils: the vineyard is scattered in islets, on the tufa (chalk) hills and Senonian or Eocene outcrops. Climate: temperate oceanic, but the Saumurois hills slow down the westerly winds; the plots furthest from the Loire are therefore subject to a continental influence. The wine Annual production: 30,000 hl, or 3.9 million bottles Average yield: 55 hl/ha Grape varieties: Cabernet Franc (70% min), Cabernet Sauvignon, Pineau d'Aunis Tasting Eye: bright, ruby red color. Nose: finesse and lightness. Nose of red fruits and flowers (iris, violet). Palate: rather supple, sometimes very dense, with fine and velvety tannins. Serving temperature: 16-18°

Montreuil, or small monastery, and Bellay, named after Lord Berlay installed in 1025 by Foulque de Nerra, founder of the rich province of Anjou, has been a walled town since the 13th century. Located at the crossroads of Anjou, Touraine and Poitou, the city became a strategic and commercial issue from the Middle Ages. This interest is reflected in the construction of fortified enclosures. A first belt (11th century), direct protection of the castle, is completed by an impressive rampart (13th century) encompassing the upper and lower towns, while a third enclosure ensures control of the ford. Six monumental gates, four of which still exist, were opened by the lords of Harcourt. These great builders endowed Montreuil-Bellay with exceptional architecture, which characterizes the appearance of the town even today: tuffeau lacework on the facades of the houses, the bossage of the towers of the Porte Saint-Jean, the tangle of the roofs of the house of the castle, turreted manors, castle chapel turned collegiate church, castles, Saint-Jean hospital... The 15th century is undoubtedly the golden century of Montreuil-Bellay, which can now be discovered in this preserved setting.