Balzac (French pronunciation: [balzak]) is a commune in the Charente department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.

The bedrock of the large eastern half of the commune, which is the highest in altitude, consists of limestone dating from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) period.

The western part of the commune, between La Chapelle and Chabots, contains other alluvial deposits which form a low terrace.

[4][5][6][7] The terrain that separates the valley of the Charente from that of the Argence forms a kind of long cliff, very high and steep in its northern part, which is the concave side of the bend in the river near the villages of Coursac and Font-Saint-Martin, which gradually decreases in height to end at the foot of the Chateau of Balzac.

The Argence flows from the north-east and forms much of the eastern border where it joins the Charente in the south-eastern corner of the commune.

[13][14] Aerial archaeology has revealed evidence of a Neolithic Bronze Age Promontory fort on the slopes of Coursac in a position dominating the Charente.

[15] A Chateau existed in the 12th century and Balzac was a former fief under the Bishopric of Angoulême and the barony of Tourriers which was acquired in 1398 by Guy de La Rochefoucauld.

From 4 March to 29 August 1619 Marie de' Medici was hosted there by the Guez family, "not wishing to stay elsewhere until the peace that made her son Louis XIII".