Every design for Niort

Niort has had a covered market since at least the thirteenth century, and its present Halles, a steel-and-glass pavilion on a vaulted stone base, opened in 1871 and is now a listed historic monument. Known in Latin as Novioritum, the town was one of the major places of historic Poitou. Sir John Chandos lived here while governing Aquitaine for Edward III, and Françoise d'Aubigné, later marquise de Maintenon, and the film director Henri-Georges Clouzot are counted among its people.

The town lies in the south-west of Deux-Sèvres, on the banks of the Sèvre Niortaise, in a rich plain at the eastern gateway to the Marais Poitevin, the wetland known as the Venise verte. It is the most populous commune in France inside a regional natural park, a centre of angelica growing, and a road junction where the A10 and A83 meet. The Donjon de Niort and the Hôtel Hercule ou Maison de la Peste speak for the old town; the headquarters of MAAF, MAIF and MACIF speak for the modern one, the French capital of mutual insurance.

For anyone who grew up here, the map holds the riverbanks, the keep and the market halls.