Travel Guide Villebois-Lavalette

Villebois-Lavalette is located 25 km south of Angoulême, on the border of the Charente and the Périgord. The site owes its name either to the Roman road that links Périgueux to Saintes and which defines the place as "a town situated in the woods near the river Né", or to Villa Bovis (estate with oxen). 950 inhabitants, 720 ha, county town of the department of Charente in the district of Angoulême, historians have not established anything "consensually". It is a charming village perched high up, labeled "Small Cities of Character", which occupies the site of an ancient oppidum, which were succeeded by a Gallo-Roman castrum, then a medieval citadel. It was a duchy-pairie, and remains the capital of the Pays d'Horte. The castle has kept walls and towers from the 12th century, but was rebuilt and completed in the 1660s. From its terrace, the view is very extensive. The enclosure of the village remains partly, as well as its beautiful covered market of the XVIIth. The name of the commune was Lavalette until 1861. The village is the seat of the community of communes of Horte and Lavalette (14 communes, 4 500 inhabitants). The inhabitants of Villebois-Lavalette are Villeboisiens, Villeboisiennes.