fashion, giving the cutlery industry a boost, but the lace that made the town of Le Puy a byword with elegant ladies--and employed some 100,000 lacemakers--has practically disappeared with the advent of machine-made lace. The superb rag paper once made by hand at Ambert has met a similar fate. But the rubber industry established in the nineteenth century by the Michelin brothers still fuels the local economy, providing jobs for farmers who work their fields half-time, after leaving the factory. Michelin made Clermont-Ferrand the tire capital of France. Close to transportation--an excellent highway links Clermont to Paris--new industries have taken root: pharmaceuticals, glassworks, and mills producing special types of steel.
This is the new face of Auvergne, open to progress but deeply attached to its traditions and its rustic cuisine. Potée auvergnate, which combines pork, smoky bacon, cabbage, and other vegetables in an aromatic broth, satisfies the most voracious appetite. In Aurillac, be sure to sample the tripoux d'Auvergne (stuffed mutton tripe--much tastier than it sounds...) accompanied by aligot, a savory blend of mashed potatoes and Tomme cheese. For dessert, there will be clafoutis (a fruit-studded batter cake) or delicious candied fruits, a Clermont specialty, which are perfectly partnered with Corent, a rare, delicate rosé wine. Liqueur lovers will want to try the verbena elixir called Verveine du Velay.
Set in grandiose landscapes, Auvergne's austere cities built (like the Clermont cathedral) of black basalt, express the local belief that ostentation is an unpardonable sin, prodigality a vice. For the richest Auvergnat on earth, driving a Rolls through the streets of hard-working Clermont would be the acme of bad taste. This story sums up the Auvergnat's attitude: upon landing at JFK airport in New York, François Michelin was informed that he could not bring fresh fruit into the United States, and that he would have to discard the apples he had packed into his carry-on bag. With perfect aplomb, he sat 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 