The land of the Bourbons is a walking history book

Moulins and its region are a land apart The land of the dukes of Bourbon, of course, but soon to be yours if you take the time to wander back through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the golden age of this powerful dynasty affiliated to the kings of France and connected with the abbey of Cluny.

The dukes of Bourbon made Moulins first and foremost the capital of the Bourbonnais. an honour it still enjoys today and to which it owes the fine town houses and mansions that proliferated until the 19th century. It also boasts some of the finer achievements of Art Nouveau, like the quintessential Grand Café.
The local laws of inheritance instituted by the dukes, coupled with the French métayage system of tenant farming, left Moulins and the surrounding area with a landscape on a human scale. Every hedgerow of this bocage countryside is like a bookmark in a life-size history book that can be picked up or set aside as you please.

Churches and châteaux proliferate as far as the eye can see, here the Priory Church of Souvigny, over there the chateaux of Botz and Riau, and a little farther, the Mal Coiffée bell-tower with the “terrible hairdo” and Anne de Beaujeu’s Pavilion, historic buildings where the splendour of dukes and great abbeys is still reflected in Bourbonnais stone.

Nature in its element

Wherever you go in Moulins and the surrounding countryside, you will see terns, at once a familiar and fascinating sight.Terns are one of the 250 species of wild birds that flock to the Allier river valley which is a designated bird sanctuary..

The unruly waters of the Allier, teeming with fish, wash the shores of this unspoilt world. On a scale of centuries or weeks, the Allier’s bed constantly changes, with the river overflowing and shifting its banks as its waters rise and subside. From beaches to meadows, moorland and woods, the river’s capricious moods open onto a territory of 1,500 hectares, with 600 varieties of plants and 200 kinds of mushrooms, added to mosses and lichens.

Fishing, canoeing, hiking, take you inside the world of one of Europe’s last wild rivers. You can pursue your meanderings through immense groves of oaks and on to shelter of living hedgerows. The gentle slopes of bocage farmland make the by-roads of Moulins and its vicinity a paradise for cyclists..

Traditions look to the future

Stained glass, basket-weaving, pottery, ceramics and earthenware, ironwork, glass-cutting, wood-carving, dried flowers – displaying a proud tradition and a pride in their work, skilled craft workers are worlds away from mass production, but they also know how to move with the times. One of the good things about tradition is its future.
That future is all the brighter when the roots of tradition lie deep in the past, an example being the wines of Saint Pourçain that had a place of honour on royal tables during the Middle Ages. Today, Saint Pourçain wine best likes to share the honours with the produce of the land: Charolais beef, lamb, turkey and chicken from local farms are among the fresh natural foods that local restaurant chefs serve with a pleasure that will soon be yours.

A lot has been said about the famous Palets d'Or that in 1898 created a revolution in their own sweet way. Whatever they may lack in aristocratic grandeur, potato paté, pompe aux grattons (bacon brioche), Duck à la Duchambay and piquenchagne (apple cake) make up for in authentic homely flavour. No corner-cutting here, this is the real thing.