poitiers

The inspiring women of Aquitaine

Jenny Harlen

07 Apr 2025 — 2 min read

Poitiers, France 🇫🇷

Made it there, and back, safe!

This has been a day of inspiring women.

the guerilla gardeners and artists bringing life to ancient cobblestone roads, 2025
a princess-prisoner-queen-divorcee-nun-convent founder-dragon slayer-saint from the 500s
the intense and devoted Jeanne d’Arc who stayed here on her victorious march to Orléans, early 1400s
the immensely powerful, and brave, Eleonore of Aquitaine who grew up in the palace here, ran Aquitaine when her father died, who married twice (to two kings) and rebuilt the huge cathedral, and who built the largest hall in Europe for power and justice on top of the hill. Oh, and went on crusade and was mother to three kings, 1100s.
and, the really nice waitress who made me feel so welcome, on the sunny square by the palace.
More stories than you can get your head around in a day!

Poitiers is a student city, not so very affluent, on a hill with a U-bend river running round it. It has hosted romans, visigoths, franks, generations of counts and dukes, and a batch of plantagenet kings. All that before the 1300s.

The place, dungeon, and ancient church are all under restoration, a project that will take a few years yet - and will make it a very cool city to visit. The history has been there all along. It was fabulous!

📍Poitiers, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France 🇫🇷

Chinon: so many stories!

I biked up to Chinon in the sun, stopped for a quiet café on the square, parked up Selma the bike by the drawbridge, and strolled on in. Meh…not such a grand chateau as the others here on the Loire, I thought, just a few crumbled towers on a

The shopping street in a cave

This came as a complete surprise, Selma the e-bike and I were just biking along the river back to the van and took a back way because the road along the Loire was a bit narrow. And suddenly found ourselves ducking through arches and tunnels, our path took us through

Trogdo villages

Selma and I are out exploring, and look what we found! Lots of these houses, shops, garages dug into the cliffside. They call them trogdolyte dwellings, for some reason that makes me think of Shrek. Actually it just means houses in caves. We’ve just stopped at a troglodyte cafe

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud

Mission accomplished! I found the three powerbrokers of the 12th century! Eleonore, Henry, Richard. Plus a daughter-in-law, the wife of John. Eleonore of Aquitaine was one hell of a woman, she was married to two kings, father of three kings, and her daughters were married into crowns of their own.

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Chinon: so many stories!

The shopping street in a cave

Trogdo villages

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud