Photo : Aurélien Fanni / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Saumur
Sub-prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire, Saumur is a Loire-side town known for its castle, its cavalry school and its wines. The river crosses it, dividing around several islands. The castle, founded around 960 by Theobald the Trickster, was remodelled under Duplessis-Mornay; its north rampart collapsed in 2001 before being rebuilt identically and reopened in 2007.
The equestrian tradition goes back to 1763, when a cavalry regiment set up a riding school there, the origin of the present school and the Cadre Noir. The Saumurois has about 1,200 km of underground galleries and troglodyte cellars, used by sparkling-wine producers and mushroom growers. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Saumur was a major Protestant centre with a renowned academy. In June 1940, the school's cadets delayed the German advance for about thirty-six hours on the town's bridges.
