current town centre lies. To the north and west, a spur of high ground runs above cliffs which descend vertically to the riverside park of La Pree. At the northern end of this spur, with the river on two sides, are the remains of the towns fortified chateau. Between the chateau and the town centre along the top of the spur is the citadel, protected by the city wall along the top of the cliffs to the west, and by its own inner walls to the south and east. To the east of the citadel and the north of the town centre, the land slopes more gently down a small valley to the river. Running down the middle of this valley can be found the Rue de la Vau Saint-Jaques, a narrow mediaeval street that climbs up from the bridge and gateway of the Porte Saint-Jacques to the centre of town. In time of the pilgrimage, this would have been the main pilgrimage route south through the town, and was occupied by weavers. Outside the city walls, the district of Saint-Jacques occupies land at the northern side of the Saint-Jacques bridge, and was also an area of weavers in mediaeval times. To the west of the town centre, the district of Saint-Paul spills down the steep hill to the river, across the Saint-Paul bridge and around the former Saint-Paul's Priory, founded in the 11th century. The Saint-Paul's district was the home of the town's tanners. Later expansions to the east and south of the walled town date from the nineteenth century and later, and were encouraged by the construction of the railway and, more recently, the town's eastern by-pass road. Population Government In 2001, the commune of Parthenay joined together with six neighbouring communes to establish the Communauté de communes de Parthenay, which provides a framework within which local tasks are carried out together. This intercommunality was merged into the Communauté de communes de Parthenay-Gâtine in 2014. The new intercommunality has 39 communes, a population of 37,817 (2014) in an area of . Transport Parthenay is located on the Route nationale 149 (RN149), which runs roughly east–west from Nantes to Poitiers, and which forms part of the European route E62 from Nantes to Genoa. The RN149 is a conventional highway, and has to a certain extent been by-passed by a combination of the autoroutes A83 and A10 that passes some