Bang in France's Geographical Centre
I discovered this past February that there is a place in France with a majestic wild river, the nation’s largest collections of musical instruments and stage costumes, medieval and Belle Époque towns, orchards and vineyards, rolling green countryside criss-crossed by hedges and punctuated by majestic oak-trees, lovingly restored villages unspoilt by modern housing developments, a UNESCO World Heritage site and, despite all this, no crowds.
This lovely place is the Allier department (named for the river) bang in the country’s geographical centre, and I urge you to go and visit… even in winter. Because despite the location this region is largely overlooked by visitors who prefer to rush headlong down the more easterly A6 motorway to the Alps in winter or the French Riviera in summer. Next time opt to drive in leisurely fashion down the mythical N7, the former main route south, which now that’s it’s been widened to 2×2 lanes is a toll-free and perfectly viable alternative to the motorway and enables you to visit some lovely towns and villages en-route.
The three main towns in Allier are set at the points of a westwards facing isosceles triangle. Montluçon at the western point has an industrial past, Moulins at the northern point is medieval and Vichy at the southern point is a Belle Époque spa. Moulins and Vichy are only 48 km apart while Montluçon lies about an hour’s drive from both Moulins and Vichy.
Montluçon castle.
I started my adventure in Montluçon, which has sat in a shallow meander of the department’s quieter river, the Cher, since Roman times. Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, fortified the town in the Middle Ages, building four city gates, and restoring the church of Notre Dame and the castle (closed to the public). Today the city walls have all but disappeared their emplacement marked by the horseshoe-shaped Boulevard de Courtais.
From its perch the Château des Ducs de Bourbon overlooks pedestrianised cobbled streets lined with slightly dilapidated half-timbered and stone houses. But, even in inclement weather the warm yellow stones of Notre-Dame de Montluçon church brighten the eponymous square. Next to it is a building “you either love or hate,” according to my guide. Designed by Philippe Tixier this is the surprising MuPop Music Museum, inaugurated on 21 June 2013. It inhabits an 18th century mansion and an old shop which Tixier has coiffed with a bronze tea-cosy.
The MuPop museum makes a stand for modernism.
This museum, imaginatively curated by Pascal Payeur, is home to France’s largest collection of musical instruments from the 18th century on. And, as long as you’ve not forgotten the audio-guide – which is really mandatory (and available in English) -- you can also listen to many of these instruments.
From Montluçon I drove along the D94 to Moulins through some lovely landscape of small fields fringed by hedges and studded with majestic oaks.
Moulins lies on the east bank of the Allier river, the principal tributary of the Loire. One of Europe’s few remaining wild rivers, its unconstrained bed allows it to meander where it pleases. The many windmills, watermills and boat mills that used to dot the hillsides and river banks giving the town its name have sadly all gone.
The Régemortes bridge looking across the Allier to the east bank and the town of Moulins with the twin spires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus church on the right and the twin spires of Moulins cathedral (Notre Dame de LlAnnonciation) on the left.
Walking across the Régemortes bridge to the west bank I found the Maison de la Rivière Allier which is a fount of information, maps and coffee! Nearby there’s a beach and swimming area, a playground, toilets, and a camping ground for up to 90 camper-vans. This is also the start of the 5km long Sentier des Castors pedestrian route with its 20 audio information points about flora and fauna along the way. Cyclists might prefer the Via Allier, a 9km traffic-free route that runs along the river bank from Chavennes to Bressolles with Moulins at the midway point.
This costume of a headless Marie-Antoinette featured in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Close by is the rather severe looking Quartier Villars, a late 18th century dragoons and cavalry barracks destined for demolition until its monumental staircase rescued it. Pushing the doors into the National Centre for Costume and Theatrical Design (Centre national du costume et de la scène or CNCS) I was transported into the colourful and joyous world of the Paris Opera, the Comédie française, the Bibliothèque nationale and other major French theatres because since 2006 this is where their best costumes are conserved and exhibited. There are two temporary exhibitions a year and two permanent exhibitions, one dedicated to dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the other features, amongst other things, the remarkable headless Marie-Antoinette costume seen in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
A tutu in the Nureyev permanent collection.
Director Delphine Pinasa told me the costumes, prints and photographs are very fragile so those exhibited in the permanent exhibition are changed twice a year. With over 10,000 costumes in storage, she has a wide wardrobe to choose from!
In 2023 the CNCS inaugurated a large space where visitors can learn how scenery and props are designed and made, even trying a bit of hands-on painting themselves. A “back-stage” has been built here so they can also discover what the lighting technicians, the sound-operators and stage-hands do.
Before heading back to the Allier’s east bank and Moulins’ historic city centre I enjoyed the view of its four 19th century spires. Depending on my viewpoint the four neo-Gothic spires appeared either to belong to one building or were revealed as quite separate, the two 82-metre high spires of Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation cathedral behind and to the left of the two 74-metre high spires of the Sacré-Coeur church.
Just behind this church lies the Place d’Allier, the triangular-shaped main city square where I followed in the footsteps of Gabrielle Chanel, aka Coco Chanel (who used to live in Moulins helping her seamstress sister) and paused for refreshments in the Grand Café: it’s been here since 1899 and its décor, a sort of baroque Art Nouveau, has remained intact.
Chimes from the Jacquemart Tower’s 4-tonne bell punctuated my two-hour guided tour of the city every 15 minutes: Jacqueline and Jacquelin, the automaton “children”, strike the 15, 30 and 45 minutes past the hour while the “parents”, Jacquemart and Jacquette, strike the hours… 24/7!
Jacquemart and his son Jacquelin on the left and Jacqueline and her mother Jacquette on the right ensure the Moulinois always know the time!
Just next to the 15th century collegiate chapel, today enlarged into a neo-Gothic cathedral, lies the Maison Mantin built for Louis Mantin in 1893 who bequeathed it to Moulins on condition it be kept intact and open so visitors can see how a 19th century bourgeois lived. I was most entertained by the bathroom with its huge metallic tub and shower with taps galore!
Talking of baths, my next stop was Vichy, one of the 11 Great Spas of Europe which in July 2021 were jointly awarded a UNESCO World Heritage label. Like the 10 others, Vichy was – and still is to a certain degree – a place where people come seeking curative and therapeutic effects from its waters.
Vichy developed largely thanks to Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) who came five times to treat his renal colic. The train station, street lay-out, casino were all built on his orders. There are some interesting, eclectic Anglo-Norman, Swiss, colonial, Flemish Renaissance, Art Nouveau and Gothic revival villas near the river built for wealthy 19th century members of this retinue. Today they are privately owned and many are classified as Historic Monuments.
In the 1930s almost 130,000 people a year came to Vichy for a cure. Today the number has shrunk to about 7,000 because a cure has to be prescribed by a doctor, lasts a minimum 21 days and costs between €1,500 to €1,800 excluding accommodation, food and travel. But drinking water from five of the nine sources is free and you can help yourself to four at the Hall of Sources. I tried them: Chomel, Grande Grille, Hôpital and Lucas – one decidedly sulphury, one really salty (“not salt, bicarbonate of sodium” my guide corrected me), and the others…. mmeh! Water from the Celestins source (950m south of the Hall of Sources) is the one that’s most neutral and sold the world over.
The ceiling mosaics in the interior of Notre Dame des Malades.
I would never have entered the austere, reinforced concrete Notre Dame des Malades church (aka Saint Blaise) built between 1925 and 1956, without my guide. What a mistake that would have been! Inside it’s an explosion of colours from the slender lapis-lazuli columns to the strong red, blues and greens of the stained glass windows via the shimmering gold of the mosaics, all the work of the Franco-Spanish Mauméjean family.
The Vichy Opera House opened in March 1903 and is the only one in Europe with a yellow, ivory and white colour scheme.
For a rural change I headed to Charroux, 30 km west of Vichy, and the only village in the Allier department to bear the “Most Beautiful Villages in France” (Plus Beaux Villages de France) label. It’s remarkable not only thanks to its medieval stone buildings, grassy village square and city gates but because 25 of its 360 inhabitants are artisans whose shops and ateliers one can visit.
Pascale Chassaing who co-owns “Safran de Charroux”.
I visited four: “Des Mots d’Emaux”, Nathalie Floch’s shop and atelier where she enamels on lava; “Safran de Charroux” owned by Pascale Chassaing and Bruno Chandioux where I learned all about growing, harvesting and using saffron; “Terres de Couleurs” where I watched ceramicist Nathalie Nyault turn a salad bowl on her potter’s wheel in under five minutes; and “Moutarde de Charroux” where Olivier and Annabelle Maenner sell the mustard that they make in St-Bonnet-de-Tizon, 3km away.
En route to Charroux via the D37 I drove under the Rouzat railway viaduct built by Eiffel (yes, he of the tower) but designed by Wilhelm Nördling which soars 59m above the river Sioule. When you look at the vertiginous spiralling ladder (no longer used) up the middle of the central pillar with no security it’s hard to believe there were no recorded deaths during the construction of the viaduct.
The Allier’s southern border with the Puy de Dôme department is in the middle of this river which has carved gorges through the northernmost foothills of the Massif Central range. I think this is where I would choose to go kayaking instead of the overcrowded Gorges du Tarne or Gorges du Verdon. Visitors rent boats at Ébreuil, are driven to Menat in the Puy de Dôme from where it’s a two or three hour paddle with the current back to Ébrueil.
On my way home I paused just south of Moulins in the vineyard heart of the Allier where 19 villages produce the AOC Saint-Pourçain appellation made only with the region’s historic Tresssallier grapes. In the unspoilt, picturesque village of Cesset (that’s the main photo at the top of this post) I met Jean Teissèdre who, with his sister Sophie and her husband, in 2011 took responsibility for the family vineyard, turning it organic and creating the Domaine des Berioles. They also offer wine tourism circuits. On Friday evenings there are concerts and apéritifs at the Domaine, summer weekends there’s a wine bar, there are treasure hunts in the vineyard for children and on the 27th July 2025 they’ll organise a wine and food pairing dinner to music provided by an orchestra. “The extra income is always welcome,” Jean told me.
You can travel to Montluçon, Moulins and Vichy from Paris by train. The journey takes between 2.5 and 3.5 hours and costs between €45-€60 one way. You can also travel between the towns by train or bus.
