at down, peeled his apples, and ate them. Waste not, want not: hard work and thrift are the keystones of the Auvergnat's character--and the keys to his success!
At the heart of the matter
The center, the middle, or--more poetically--the heart of France: that special spot belongs to Berry. This site at the country's center of gravity confers a certain balance. Berry can claim kinship with the all the larger regions that surround it: like Touraine and Anjou, Berry boasts romantic châteaux; like Auvergne and the Bourbonnais, Berry's landscapes are alive with springs and rivers, and are dotted with Romanesque churches; Burgundy's wines and ancient abbeys find an echo in Berry's delicious Sancerre and Menetou-Salon, and in the noble monastery of Noirlac; the wheatfields and Gothic cathedrals of Ile-de-France are mirrored in Berry's prosperous farms and the cathedral of Bourges, one of the most impressive in France. It's logical, perhaps, that those larger regions drain off the flow of tourists, many of whom are not even aware that Berry exists! All the more reason then, for the curious traveler to take the time to savor Berry's quiet but very real beauty.
The Berry region covers two départements, Cher and Indre. The northern portion is occupied by Sologne’s endless forests, stippled with ponds and teeming with game. The center, known as Champagne Berrichonne, is agricultural, while the slopes of eastern Berry (the Sancerrois) are covered by vineyards. To the west, the marshy Brenne is home to flocks of waterfowl. Two hours from Paris by car or train, Berry is an ideal destination for ecology-minded travelers; but art and history buffs will find plenty to occupy them, too.
This rich, temperate region was naturally a coveted prize for conquerors. To win it (along with Aquitaine, of which Berry was once a part), England's Plantagenet kings (a line born of the French Count of Anjou and the daughter of William the Conqueror) warred against the French Crown. It was from Bourges that Charles VII, spurred by Joan of Arc, set out to win back his kingdom from the English. The Scots, too, rallied to the French cause according to the terms of the “Auld Alliance,” a defensive pact against the English which, the Scots maintain, still holds good today! In any case, to thank Scotland for its aid, John Stuart of Darnley was made Seigneur d'Aubigny. In beautifully preserved Aubigny-sur-Nère also known as the Stuarts' town, bagpipe-playing Scots decked out in kilts parade down the main street each July 14. On the outskirts of Aubigny, at the Château de la Verrerie, the hospitable Comte de Vogüé‚ has fitted out princely accommodations where a few privileged paying guests can spend the night or a few idyllic days.
To reconquer his realm Charles VII required considerable forces, and to obtain them he needed considerable funds. The man to supply them was financier Jacques Coeur, the hugely rich merchant prince whose commerce with the East (he had his own Mediterranean fleet) allowed him to build up the royal war chest. Jacques Coeur also built himself a superb palace, one of the architectural glories of Bourges. The town's other glory, of course, is the magnificent cathedral of Saint-Étienne, completed in the thirteenth century and recently registered as a world landmark by UNESCO.
If you are driving to Bourges from Paris, why not follow the Route Jacques Coeur? It begins at La Bussière with the lakebound château des Pêcheurs, then continues south through Aubigny-sur-Nère and Bourges to the Cistercian abbaye de Noirlac (where a music festival is held in July and August) and the exuberant Renaissance castle of Meillant. Last of the seventeen stops on the Route Jacques Coeur is the triple-towered medieval fortress of Culan not far from the Auvergne border.
Sancerre occupies a rocky spur on the banks of the Loire. The town's ancient vineyards (mentioned by Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist writing around the time of Christ) are best known for a crisp, flinty white wine produced from the Sauvignon grape. Sauvignon is also planted at nearby Menetou-Sa