The Bourbonnais, jewel in the crown of an ancient realm
The Bourbon dynasty had its origins in this historic region of central France, where from the 10th to the 16th centuries the counts and dukes of Bourbon reigned supreme over an unruly realm known as the Bourbonnais. As most of it seems deceptively flat, consisting of forests, meadows, lakes and rivers, the jewel in its crown is surely Charroux, 413 metres high, with magnificent views over the Limagne plain and the Auvergne mountains. This fortified village, one of the most beautiful in France, was once completely autonomous, with its own laws, customs and privileges, and its fierce independent spirit often surfaces in defiant resistance to central bureaucracy.
The museum recalls Charroux’s heyday, retracing the daily life of the humble peasant and the powerful lord. The charming, ancient cobbled streets, so narrow in places that you can touch both sides at a single stretch, deep wells, still with water glistening at the bottom, and the powerful, prestigious clock tower are all symbols of a fascinating past. A rough grindstone is still used to crush the raw ingredients of Charroux’s famous mustard.
The capital of the Bourbonnais is Moulins, which spans the banks of the Allier River, surprisingly docile here as it passes under the Régemortes bridge, after having entered the Auvergne as a fearsome tumult, plunging into chasms hewn out by its own ferocity. But then Moulins is a delightful, docile town, rich in old residences, with a trafficfree honeycomb of medieval lanes. It has a cathedral with wonderful stained glass and an extraordinary density of Romanesque churches, including the exotic former collegiate church, within whose flamboyant walls lies the triptych known as ‘Maître de Moulins’, a masterpiece of Gothic art. And not far from the town, the church of Saint-Menoux makes a bizarre claim to fame. In the interior a sloping buttress, supported on tiny pillars, is distinguished by a large hole in the stonework. Known as a débredinoir, it gave rise to a legend that claimed the most simpleminded could recover his wits simply by sticking his head through the hole.
Near Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule the Allier converges with the Sioule, whose gorges, linking the Bourbonnais and the Auvergne, are a haven for ornithologists, flyfishermen and climbers. The Val d’Allier is reputed to have more different species of birds than the Camargue; trout practically leap on to the fishing rod, and the Roc Armand would be even more formidable than it looks had not, long ago, professional mountaineers obligingly left pitons in place at strategic intervals.
At the edge of the Tronçais, with its immense oak forest, lies Montluçon, in a valley amongst the Combraille hills. The medieval district is a welcome refuge from heavy traffic and beneath its busy streets are said to run a series of underground passages that connected other, now ruined fortresses to Montluçon’s finest, the château of the dukes of Bourbon. Its square parapet tower and Italianate gallery remain intact, a testimony to the city’s affluent past. Its present is characterised by a wonderful display of flowers that has won for Montluçon first prize almost every year in the competition between cities. If they inspire you to take some blooms back to your villa, look for the market held in the Passage du Doyenné each Saturday morning.
From Montluçon an old railway line, abandoned in 1939, provides a rich experience for hikers, high above the dramatic countryside on a series of viaducts. Its six kilometres end at Néris-les-Bains, one of several spas in the district with therapeutic springs. At Vichy, the most famous, they feed into the massive Allier lake, used for all kinds of water activities and international competitions. You can take home the water in bottles, the mud in face applications, and a popular mintflavoured sweet called ‘Pastille Vichy’, decidedly an acquired taste. What you must never mention, however, is that Vichy was the seat of the war-time collaborative government in France before the Nazis took over the southern half of the country. The fact is simply ignored, despite all the evidence, like an elephant in the drawingroom.
Allier is much admired for its châteaux, more than thirty in all, and many are worthy of an extended visit. They include the 12th century Château de Billy, the medieval Château de Bourbon l’Archambault, the Château de Chareil-Cintral, restored in the 17th century, the Donjon d’Huriel, a 15th century prison tower, the Château de Fontariol, north-west of Vichy; the Château de La Palice, in the hands of the same family since 1430, and the 15th century Château de Riau near Villeneuve-sur-Allier. Perhaps the most striking of all is the Château de Busset, built at the end of the 13th century by a grand master of the Templars and owned by one of the descendants of the Bourbons for most of the last 500 years. It has fine medieval and Renaissance architecture, and beautiful French and Italian gardens.
How to get there
By Air
See airline information >>
By Car to Moulins
With SeaFrance
P&O Ferries
Eurotunnel
From Calais: 587km
(approx. 5hrs 45mins)
With Brittany Ferries
From Caen: 530km
(approx. 5hrs 10mins)
From our September 2006 newsletter
