A pleasant wine-producing town on the Loire, Saumur is the spiritual home of the French cavalry. In 1764 Choiseul established five military equitation schools, but that at Saumur was the only one to survive the budgetary reductions of 1771. Between 1767 and 1770 the architect Jean de Voglie designed elegant barracks for the school and the resident regiment, the Carabiniers. The school's title changed from time to time, but for many years it was the École d'Application de la Cavalerie. Cavalry officers were sent there for their special-to-arm training after commissioning, and there were also courses for NCOs. With the French military revival after the Franco-Prussian war a school was established at Saumur to train cavalry NCOs destined for commissions. Saumur took on tank as well as cavalry training between the world wars, and on 18-20 June 1940 its officers and cadets gallantly held the crossings of the Loire against superior German forces.
The school moved to Tarbes under Vichy, but returned to Saumur after the war. The École Nationale d'Equitation was established at Saumur in 1972 to train civilian riding instructors, and is distinct from the cavalry and armour school. In 1984 the instructors from the cavalry school moved there, retaining the name, deriving from their dark uniforms, of Cadre Noir. The town has a museum of the horse, a tank museum, and a cavalry museum.
— Richard Holmes
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