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Poitou

[pwa-too]

Poitou, region and former province, W France, stretching from the Atlantic coast eastward beyond the Vienne River. It now includes three departments—Vendée in the west, Deux-Sèvres in the center, and Vienne in the east, as well as small areas of several other departments. Poitiers, the historic capital, is the chief industrial center. Other industrial towns are Châtellerault, Niort, La Roche-sur-Yon, and Les Sables-d'Olonne. The Vendée region, or Lower Poitou, extends beyond the departmental boundary of Vendée; it is mostly a pastoral hedgerow country (the bocages), with swamps in the west and in the south. A narrow strip, the Vendean plain, is an intensive wheat-growing region. Upper Poitou is a rich agricultural area; it also has a large dairy industry. A part of the Roman province of Aquitaine, Poitou (known as "the city of the Pictons") fell to the Visigoths (5th cent.) and to the Franks (507). The counts of Poitiers, who originated in the 9th cent., assumed the title duke of Aquitaine. The area was frequently contested by England and France, passing back and forth in possession until the end of the Hundred Years War, when Charles VII definitively incorporated it in the French crown lands.

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Poitou

Historical region, western central France. It was bounded by Brittany, Anjou, Touraine, Marche, and the Atlantic Ocean. It was inhabited by the ancient Gallic tribe of Pictones and became part of Roman Aquitania. A meeting place of northern and southern cultures, its golden age (11th–12th century) was characterized by great Romanesque art and architecture. The counts of Poitiers were succeeded by the Angevin kings of England, but by 1375 the French had won the region back. It was a province of France until the French Revolution, when it was divided into three departments. It is predominantly a rural area; regional specialties include seafood and white wine.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Poitou

Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.

The region of Poitou was called Thifalia (or Theiphalia) in the sixth century.

There is a marshland called the Poitevin marsh (French Marais Poitevin) on the gulf of Poitou, on the west coast of France, just north of La Rochelle.

Many of the Acadians who settled in what is now Nova Scotia beginning in 1604 and later to New Brunswick, came from the region of Poitou. After the Acadians were deported by the British beginning in 1755, a number of Acadians eventually took refuge in Poitou. A large portion of these refugees also migrated to Louisiana in 1785 and following years became known as Cajuns (see Cajuns).