The medieval city still has a hundred or so half-timbered houses, which can be discovered along the winding streets of the Saint-Jacques district. They can be recognized by their corbelled construction from one level to another. On the first floor, generally made of granite, was the store whose large openings can still be recognized. On the first floor and under the roof lived the weavers. It is indeed in the Saint-Jacques district that were produced the sheets of Parthenay which were exported in the Middle Ages in the north of the kingdom.