City (pop., 1999: 43,171), southwestern France, on the Charente River .
Visigoth s in 507, and from the 9th century it was the centre of a countship. Fought over by the French and English in the Hundred Years' War , it was ceded to England in 1360 but restored to France in 1373. It passed to the house of Orléans in 1394. The city is noted for papermaking and is the site of the 12th-century cathedral of Saint-Pierre.