Saintes
Saintes
(săNt), town (1990 pop. 27,546), Charente-Maritime dept., W France, on the Charente River. It is a market for grains, brandy, and leather; telecommunications equipment is manufactured. The town, probably the capital of the Celtic Santones and later occupied by the Romans, was the capital of old SaintongeSaintonge, region of W France, on the Bay of Biscay. It is now part of the Charente-Maritime dept. Cattle and sheep raising, dairying, and the manufacture of cognac from grapes grown along the Charente River are the major occupations; oysters are harvested along the coast.
..... Click the link for more information. . Louis IX defeated Henry III of England there in 1242. In Saintes are the ruins of a Roman amphitheater and triumphal arch and the two partially restored Romanesque churches of St. Europe (11th–12th cent.).