Beauvoir

Beauvoir-sur-Mer stood among the coastal marshes of Poitou, where ships came to load salt. Its castle grew into a substantial fortress with corner towers and broad moats. During the Wars of Religion it changed hands after sieges in 1569 and 1588, the latter led by Henry of Navarre. Louis XIV ordered the fortress demolished in 1689, fearing that an enemy might seize it from the sea.