Events and festivals in Nouvelle-Aquitaine take place on September 19-20, 2026. The historic Angoulême street circuit fires up its engines, while Pompadour, Biarritz and Hossegor hold their own weekend events.
Friday evening, on the ramparts of Angoulême. The Circuit International des Remparts opens three days of historic motor racing. It runs from 18 to 20 September 2026. Nouvelle-Aquitaine marks its weekend on September 19-20, 2026. The historic Angoulême circuit fires up its engines here, while Pompadour, Biarritz and Hossegor hold their own weekend events.
The Circuit des Remparts d'Angoulême, a track dating from 1939
Three days of historic motor racing. The Circuit International des Remparts d'Angoulême runs its 1,279-metre track. It winds through the ramparts and cobbled streets of the old fortified town. Racing runs from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September 2026.
Created in 1939, it stopped during the war.
The circuit restarted its engines in 1947. Drivers who became legends of world motorsport raced here, Juan Manuel Fangio and Maurice Trintignant among them: nowhere else in France did a fortified town host historic racing through its own streets.
That history still weighs on the 2026 edition. The circuit remains one of the largest historic motorsport events held in France, and vintage racing cars still run the same track laid out nearly nine decades ago.
The rest of the weekend, from screens to horses and surf
La Rochelle turns to the screen from 1999. The Festival de la Fiction TV de La Rochelle has remained France's leading television event: every September, industry professionals and the public get an early look at the season's new series and TV films, running through Sunday 20 September.
Thirty-five years of secondhand booksellers, in Monpazier. The Fête du Livre de Monpazier gathers, each autumn under the halle on Place des Cornières, authors and independent publishers, while the arcades of the medieval bastide, listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, house the booksellers.
Onward to Pompadour, for the horses. Close to 550 horses and ponies under six years old take part at the Haras national d'Arnac-Pompadour, for the Grande Semaine de Pompadour: national finals for young sport horses in eventing, dressage in the main courtyard, showjumping on the Jussiaux arena, cross-country on the racecourse, alongside the Journées Internationales de l'Anglo-Arabe held in parallel on the same site.
Horses first, waves next. On the legendary beaches of Hossegor, Capbreton and Seignosse, the Quiksilver Festival mixes top-level surf competition, live concerts, DJ sets, screenings and art exhibitions. Three years after it was created by surfers Jérémy Florès and Miky Picon, the event gathers some of the world's best surfers.
More than ten thousand visitors are expected around the town hall and Parc de la Beausserie, in Panazol. The departmental competition of the Limousin cattle breed takes place there, at the Festival de l'Agriculture et de l'Élevage de Panazol, run since 2012 by Gilles Deconchat and Olivier Robert.
In Biarritz, the dance festival closes out ten days of programming. Le Temps d'Aimer la Danse, artistically directed by Thierry Malandain since 1990, brings together some of the world's leading dance companies, from contemporary creations to classical ballet and traditional Basque dances, for the close of its 2026 edition.