Ideally located halfway between Les Sables-d'Olonne and La Roche-sur-Yon, the town of Achards is easily accessible by the 2x2 lanes.
Thanks to the many shops, businesses and associations, it is a town that wants to be dynamic. It benefits from the attractiveness of the Achards industrial area.
Since January 1, 2017, the municipalities of La Mothe-Achard and La Chapelle-Achard merged to give birth to the new municipality "Les Achards".
The town probably takes its name from the mound (butte) that Acardus de Mota, first lord of the place, built in the eleventh century at the confluence of Auzaire and Auzance.
Tools of polished stone, bronze, pottery, a furnace ore discovered east of the town attest a human activity in the Gallic era and even before.
From the eleventh century, the town had two churches: St Jacques, the chapel of the castle and St. Mary in Bourg-Paillé which became a priory in the thirteenth century. They were burned by the Protestants in 1569. At that time there was a leprosy (hospital for lepers) royal foundation.
In the nineteenth century, La Mothe-Achard experienced a real commercial boom after the completion of the Saumur-Les Sables road in 1825, (after the Nantes-Les Sables road in 1750), the construction of the station and the arrival of the train in 1866.
At the same time, there was a large livestock market on the current Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Other areas were reserved for pigs and poultry. The monthly fairs, the first Thursday of the month, were well beyond the limits of the township and continue to this day.
In 1924, the metal structure halls of the architect Libaudière replaced the old wooden halls dating from the Empire. The halls and many shops, hotels whose "Lion d'Or", not to mention many cafes, were the reflection of a major commercial activity. The craft industry was varied and flourishing: blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, dyers, milliners...
The name of the Chapel-Achard probably comes from a member of the family of Lord Achard de la Mota who set up a religious center under the name of Capella Achardi and had a chapel built on the site of the current church, in the vicinity from 1235. Capella Achardi is mentioned in a cartulary charter of the Abbey Ste Croix de Talmont in 1218.
Populated since the Neolithic, the town retains several traces of a rich past. The church is one of the oldest in the region, although it has not been spared the vicissitudes of the wars of religion and revolution.
Common very important for centuries, it was cut in two in the nineteenth century with the creation of Saint-Mathurin.
In recent years, it has experienced a very strong development, with an increase of 80% of the population, in less than 10 years!
