Hôtel de Ville, Poitiers

Poitiers (, UK also , US also , French: [pwatje] (listen); Poitevin: Poetàe) is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomeration has 130,853 inhabitants in 2016 and is the center of an urban area of 261,795 inhabitants. With more than 29,000 students, Poitiers has been a major university city since the creation of its university in 1431, having hosted René Descartes, Joachim du Bellay and François Rabelais, among others. A city of art and history, still known as "Ville aux cent clochers" the centre of town is picturesque and its streets include predominantly historical architecture and half-timbered houses, especially religious architecture, mostly from the Romanesque period ; including notably the Saint-Jean baptistery (4th century), the hypogeum of the Dunes (7th century), the Notre-Dame-la-Grande church (12th century), the Saint-Porchaire church (12th century) or the Saint-Pierre cathedral (end of the 12th century) as well as the courthouse (12th century), former palace of the Counts of Poitou, Dukes of Aquitaine, where the Queen of France and England Eleanor of Aquitaine held her court. The city's name is associated with two major battles that took place in the area. The first, in 732, also known as the Battle of Tours (to avoid confusion with the second), saw the Franks commanded by Charles Martel defeat an expeditionary army of the Umayyad Caliphate. The second, in 1356, was one of the key battles of the Hundred Years' War. It saw the defeat of a larger French royal army by the English and the capture of John II by the victorious Prince of Wales. The Poitiers agglomeration, located halfway between Paris and Bordeaux, is home to the Futuroscope technopole, which includes major public (CNED, Canopé, etc.) and private companies of national scope, as well as leading European research laboratories. With 2 million visitors annually, Futuroscope is the leading tourist site in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the third most popular amusement park in France after Disneyland Paris and the Puy du Fou.

The canton of Poitiers-3 is an administrative division of the Vienne department, western France. Its borders were modified at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Poitiers.It consists of the following communes: Poitiers (partly)

Le Havre Seine Métropole is the communauté urbaine, an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Le Havre. It is located in the Seine-Maritime department, in the Normandy region, northwestern France. It was created on 1 January 2019 by the merger of the former Agglomeration community of Le Havre and the communautés de communes Canton de Criquetot-l'Esneval and Caux Estuaire. Its area is 495.8 km2. Its population was 268,912 in 2018, of which 169,733 in Le Havre proper.

Grand-Poitiers is the communauté urbaine, an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Poitiers. It is located in the Vienne department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, western France. It was created on 1 January 2017 as a communauté d'agglomération and transformed into a communauté urbaine on 1 July 2017. Its area is 1064.7 km2. Its population was 194,068 in 2014, of which 88,665 in Poitiers proper.

The palace of the Counts of Poitou/Dukes of Aquitaine in Poitiers in Poitou in western France is a medieval testimony of the Plantagenet style of architecture. Until 2019, this building was used as a courthouse.

Notre-Dame la Grande is a Roman Catholic church in Poitiers, France. Having a double status, collegial and parochial, it forms part of the Catholic diocese of Poitiers. The west front adorned with statuary is recognised as a masterpiece of Romanesque religious art. The walls inside the church are painted.

The University of Poitiers (UP; French: Université de Poitiers) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France by welcoming nearly 28,000 students in 2017. The University of Poitiers represents a global operating budget of around 150 million euros per year, one-third of which is for operating and investment costs and two-thirds for personnel costs. As of July 2015 it is a member of the regional university association Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University.

The Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Poitiers is a school of higher education for music, drama, and dance located in Poitiers, France. The institution is a charter school of France's Ministry of Culture and is operated by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles. The conservatory awards degrees in music performance, music education, choreographic studies, and theater.

The Musée Sainte-Croix is the largest museum in Poitiers, France. Planned by the architect poitevin Jean Monge and built in 1974, it stands at the site of the former Abbaye Sainte-Croix, which was moved to Saint-Benoît, Vienne. It is a constructed of concrete and glass, in the 1970s style. The museum hosts a permanent exhibition on periods from prehistory to the contemporary art, through the medieval period and the Fine arts. Major works include sculptures of Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, a reliquary vase from Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, paintings by Piet Mondrian and Odilon Redon and the stone sculpture of L'Âme de la France by Charles Marie Louis Joseph Sarrabezolles.

The Baptistère Saint-Jean (Baptistery of St. John) is a Roman Catholic church in Poitiers, France. It is reputed to be the oldest existing Christian building in the West and one of the most prominent examples of Merovingian architecture.

Poitiers station (French: Gare de Poitiers) is a major railway station in the French city of Poitiers, in the department of Vienne and region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The station is situated on the Paris–Bordeaux railway. It was built in the 1850s.

Poitiers Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Poitiers) is a Roman Catholic church in Poitiers, France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Poitiers.