Bastides: Medieval planned towns The "Bastide" towns of southwest France are a growing tourist attraction, and comprise one of the largest collections of  well-preserved mediaeval townscapes to be found anywhere in Europe.  Obviously, the built environment of the more important bastides has been significantly modified since mediaeval times, but in many of the more rurally sited bastides, the layout of streets and buildings has remained virtually unchanged for over six centuries, if not longer, and many of today's buildings have walls, if not much more, that date back to the early days of the town. There are said to be some 500-700 bastides in France, depending on how wide the definition is extended. Most of these are the southwest, and the majority of them were built in the two centuries from 1200 to 1400. At the time, the southwest of France was a frontier region, belonging partly to France, and partly to the kings of England. It should be remembered that until the mid fifteenth century, when the "English" were to all intents and purposes driven out of France, the kings of England, French-speaking, were actually Angevins, one of the four great French dynasties, who had moved their power base from Angers (in the Loire valley) to England, but still had large possessions in France, notably Aquitaine. The large number of bastides in the southwest of France were set up in order to establish a more modern society in what was, at the time, a rather wild and inhospitable part