Confolens, Charente Département, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

🇫🇷 Confolens is a commune in south-western France. It is one of the two sub-prefectures of the Charente department. Confolens is the administrative centre of a largely rural district, which has seen the development of tourism in recent years. On 1 January 2016, the former commune Saint-Germain-de-Confolens was merged into Confolens.

Geography Confolens is located at the confluence of the Vienne and Goire rivers. This location is at the origin of its name. Confolens is also at the point where the Charente and Limousin regions meet, hence the name sometimes used to describe the area of "Charente Limousine".

History Confolens was built around a fortress first mentioned in the eleventh century. It still has picturesque remnants of its medieval past, including city walls and several houses dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It also features a bridge first mentioned in the fourteenth century, and two churches from the 11th and 14th centuries respectively.

In the nineteenth century, Confolens developed itself as the administrative centre for a considerable agriculture area, due to its role as sous-prefecture and the distance of all other major towns Angoulême (to the south-west), Limoges and Poitiers are all about 70 km away. It has several handsome nineteenth century administrative buildings, some of which were built by Paul Abadie, who was very active in the region.

There has been limited further urbanisation in the twentieth century. The population of the town has aged, and the number of agriculture and industrial jobs have declined. British and Dutch have been acquiring property in and around the town, and now form a significant presence.

Events Confolens is the home of the Festival de Folklore, one of France's largest and best known folklore festivals, which takes place annually in August.