Fors

Its name would be a forum alteration (place of public meetings). In 1981, at the Champ-Royal, excavations revealed the remains of an ancient Vicus (small town) stretching over 3 hectares with villas, thermal baths, porticoes and forum. Cited for the first time in 1100, Fors is protected by its fortress, an advanced citadel of the castle of Niort erected by the Count of Poitou to delay the advance of attackers coming from the south. In 1494, the châtelain was Guy Poussard, advisor to the king, whose daughter Anne became the first mistress of the Comte d'Angoulême, the future Francis I who would have had him build a mansion of pleasure on the site of the castel. Some of the towers were used to build a bourgeois house in the 19th century. Today, only ruins remain of the castle.

To see: Notre Dame church, old cheese factory (private), bread oven, and arboretum of the Pétousse.