Vouvant

The river Mère wraps around three sides of the hill that holds Vouvant, the only fortified town left in the Vendée. Walls raised by the Lusignans around 1200 still stand with their keep, the Tour Mélusine, and a three-arched medieval bridge crosses the river, while the Mervent-Vouvant forest, the largest in the department, spreads across the commune.

Highlights

• The Tour Mélusine, keep of the Lusignan castle, from the late 12th century
• The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, begun in the 11th century, with its crypt
• The old bridge, built between the 13th and 15th centuries
• Walks in the Mervent-Vouvant forest, the Vendée's largest (FR)
• The 1958 replica of the Lourdes grotto on the riverbank

Summary based on Wikipedia and Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA), written with AI assistance.