Poitiers

Poitiers is a city in France, the prefecture of the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The town is picturesque; and its streets are interesting for their remains of ancient architecture, especially of the Romanesque period, and the memories of great historical events.

The city itself is very old. It already existed as a Gaulish fort in the time when Julius Caesar came to Gaul. It was the capital of the Pictones tribe.

Geography

Poitiers is in the centre of the Vienne department, between the valleys of the Boivre and the Clain rivers. The old town is on the slopes and the summit of a plateau which rises 130 feet (40 m) above the streams which surround it on three sides.

Poitiers is at about 220 km (137 mi) from Bordeaux, 340 km (211 mi) from Paris, 130 km (80.8 mi) from Limoges and 180 km (112 mi) from Nantes.

The commune has an area of 42.1 km² (16.3 sq mi). Its average altitude is 105 m (344 ft); at the city hall, the altitude is 116 m (381 ft).

The commune of Poitiers is surrounded by the communes:

Climate

The climate of Poitiers, in the Köppen climate classification, is Cfb - Oceanic climate with template summers.

Population

The inhabitants of Poitiers are known, in French, as Pictaviens (women: Pictaviennes).

With a population of 87,435, Poitiers has a population density of inhabitants/km 2 .

Evolution of the population in Poitiers Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8)

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BarData= bar:1968 text:1968 bar:1975 text:1975 bar:1982 text:1982 bar:1990 text:1990 bar:1999 text:1999 bar:2006 text:2006 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData= color:barra width:30 align:left

bar:1968 from:0 till: 70681 bar:1975 from:0 till: 81313 bar:1982 from:0 till: 79350 bar:1990 from:0 till: 78894 bar:1999 from:0 till: 83448 bar:2006 from:0 till: 88776 bar:2014 from:0 till: 87435

PlotData= bar:1968 at: 70681 fontsize:S text: 70,681 shift:(-12,5) bar:1975 at: 81313 fontsize:S text: 81,313 shift:(-13,5) bar:1982 at: 79350 fontsize:S text: 79,350 shift:(-13,5) bar:1990 at: 78894 fontsize:S text: 78,894 shift:(-13,5) bar:1999 at: 83448 fontsize:S text: 83,448 shift:(-13,5) bar:2006 at: 88776 fontsize:S text: 88,776 shift:(-13,5) bar:2014 at: 87435 fontsize:S text: 87,435 shift:(-13,5)

Poitiers forms, with seven other communes, the urban area of Poitiers with a population of 128,111 inhabitants (2013) and an area of 172.3 km² (66.53 sq mi). This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Poitiers, formed by 97 communes, with a population of 257,233 inhabitants (2013) and an area of 2303.4 km² (889.35 sq mi).

Administration

Poitiers is the prefecture of the Vienne department, the capital of the arrondissement of Poitiers and the administrative centre () of five canton:

• Poitiers-1, with 23,086 inhabitants (2014) .
• Poitiers-2, with 25,371 inhabitants (2014) .
• Poitiers-3, with 26,843 inhabitants (2014) .
• Poitiers-4, with 20,756 inhabitants (2014) .
• Poitiers-5, with 22,170 inhabitants (2014) .

It is part of the intercommunality Grand Poitiers (Communauté d’agglomération Grand Poitiers).

Sister cities

Poitiers is twinned with:

• Northampton, UK
• Marburg, Germany
• Lafayette, USA
• Coimbra, Portugal
• Yaroslavl, Russia
• Moundou, Chad
• Iaşi, Romania

Notable people

This is a list of people of interest who were born or resided in Poitiers:

• René Descartes studied law at the University of Poitiers
• Michel Foucault, French philosopher
• Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
• Brian Joubert, French ice skating champion