Promenade des Remparts, Medieval rampart footpath in Nevers, France

The Promenade des Remparts is a footpath along Nevers' medieval city walls, running from the Porte du Croux gate down to the Loire River. The route passes through gardens and stops at viewpoints overlooking the city and valley.

The abbey of Notre-Dame, built in 624 outside the first western walls, was enclosed by a new wall built under Pierre de Courtenay at the end of the 12th century. The wall was entirely rebuilt during the Hundred Years' War, when it was backed with an earth mattress and its towers and gates were rebuilt or added, including the Porte du Croux and the Tour Saint-Révérien. After the siege of 1617 and Louis XIV's ordinances the ramparts were no longer maintained and served as stone quarries; only the stretch between the Porte du Croux and the Loire survived.

The garden of the abbey occupies the site of the nuns' cloister, bought by the city in 1971 and laid out in 1981 to recall medieval monastic gardens. Beds hold medicinal, aromatic and ornamental plants, clipped yew hedges line the terraces, and an old well, a tree and a column stand for the lost cloister. The garden is also home to the parsley frog.

The walk runs from the Porte du Croux to the Goguin tower by the Loire, with the Havre tower about halfway. The Passière stream now flows underground beneath the walls. In the garden of the abbey, look for the old well, the column marking the lost cloister and the yew hedges on the two terraces.

A stream flows beneath the walls and once powered water mills, showing how water was integrated into the defensive structure. This underground system was both practical and a sign of the engineering skill of the time.