French City Break: Bourges

 
French City Break: Bourges

Civilised Bourges is rightly deserving of its award as European Capital of Culture 2028. But there’s more to see in the city than culture.

The mint is pungent. It comes to life as the dried leaves wallow in boiling water, presented to me in a teapot that looks like a shiny regal samovar. There must be 35 degrees of heat from the summer afternoon sun, yet the steaming mint tea, grown and made in the Berry countryside just outside the city of Bourges, provides a refreshingly cool interlude. I’m sitting opposite the intricately-carved entrance of Bourges Saint-Étienne Cathedral, at Maison NANA1807. The self-proclaimed ‘Finest French House of Mint Tea’ offers respite beneath shading parasols and a touch of Morocco. The sales lady performs her role expertly, wafting silver caddy after caddy of varying tea leaves under my nose. Having imbibed my thimble-sized thirst-quencher of minty liquor, I leave, but not before paying for an excruciatingly pricey pouch of homegrown fruity peach and mint tea. A visit to the cathedral’s internal sanctum is required to revive me (again); the restoration of my bank balance will have to wait another day.

© CAROLINE MILLS

The centre of France

The city of Bourges has the charm of the Loire Valley and Burgundy combined, with elegant buildings and historic wealth. There’s a touch of the unanticipated, too. It is, borderline, the most central location in mainland France north to south and east to west (the village of Bruère-Allichamps, 36km south, argues its claim to that). Bourges is, at least, on the Paris Meridian, with Saint-Étienne Cathedral built over that longitudinal line. A brass strip inserted into the floor marks the axis, and one of the cathedral’s notable draws is La Méridienne, an instrument which can calculate the time based upon the position of the sun. Every day at noon – solar time – light coming through one of two viewfinders strikes the ground on a point along the meridian line. La Méridienne is not to detract from the overall splendour of the building, though. The cathedral is the widest of all in France, has no transept and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992 for its proportions, the quality of its ornamentation and its cultural significance ‘as one of the grand masterpieces of Gothic art and human genius’. Its windows, aside from streaming light onto the Paris Meridian at certain times of the day, are also striking for their craftsmanship, their age (13th to 15th centuries) and their rich colours. Visitors make a point of coming here for the stained glass alone; shafts of red and blue cast pools of light on the soaring columns and flagstones. I head out of the cathedral and make my way to the neighbouring Jardin de l’Archevêché (Archdiocese Garden).

This formal French-style garden, designed in the 17th century by a student of André Le Nôtre, is a fine place from which to marvel at the external magnificence of the cathedral. It’s a popular meeting spot, with colourful, mixed flower borders stuffed with vibrant dahlias and wavering, wispy ballet pink gaura, cornflower blue salvia, standard roses and precisely clipped box cones. Around the edges are stumpy-trunked avenues of trees under which to sit. The Archdiocese Garden is one of two distinguished gardens in the city centre; the other, to the north of the city centre, is the Jardin des Prés Fichaux. The larger of the two, Prés Fichaux, is designated by the Ministry of Culture and Communication as a Jardin Remarquable for its Art Deco design that incorporates avenues of yew trees, pools, flower borders and an open-air theatre.

© CAROLINE MILLS

European capital of culture

Bourges is waiting in the wings to become European Capital of Culture. The city competed against Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier and Rouen to become the French representative of this EU-wide initiative in 2028. Selection criteria states that ‘cities should prepare a cultural programme with a strong European dimension’ and which ‘must have a lasting impact and contribute to the long-term development of the city’. That development programme has already begun by, perversely, closing some of the city’s most prestigious museums for several years, including the Musée Estève, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Musée des Meilleurs Ouvriers and the Musée du Berry. While these museums are renovated and restructured, elements of the collections from all have been combined into a Maison des Musées. Housed in rooms that were once part of the Musée des Meilleurs Ouvriers, the maison is designed to engage with the public, highlighting what’s happening with the museums and the various phases of the project. The display of modern builders’ tools to represent development doesn’t exactly require explanation but, elsewhere, a thematic exhibition showcases objects and works from all the museums that rarely get presented. For 2024 – Olympic year – the theme was sport.

© CAROLINE MILLS

The best building of Bourges

There are many attractive buildings in Bourges, made from the cream-coloured limestone that befits a wealthy city ‘twixt the Loire Valley and Burgundy. Aside from the cathedral, the most striking building is Palais Jacques Coeur. Coeur was born in Bourges in about 1400 when the city was the capital of the Duchy of Berry. He became an influential man as treasurer to King Charles VII, and, with that, a wealthy man. Influenced by the Renaissance during his travels in Italy, he returned to Bourges to build a flamboyant palace. As an example of 15th-century civil architecture on this scale or opulence in France, it is striking in its design, its attention to detail and its quality. The intricate carvings of nattering women playing chess in an open window above the fireplace in the South Gallery, the wavy, curved design of the wooden vaulted ceiling in the same room, the painted ceiling of the chapel with lustre, the roof timbers in the shape of an upturned hull of a boat in the attic, the gargoyles, the miniature architectural features (a symbol of 15th-century wealth) and many other features leave visitors gazing in awe.

Jacques Coeur palace © shutterstock

A wandering walk

The centre of Bourges is compact: within half an hour, it’s possible to walk a circuit along its main streets – that is if you’re not lured in by some café along the historic Rue Bourbonneux or an up-market clothes shop along Rue Moyenne, where coloured ribbons flutter overhead like a shaggy haircut. I stray 15 minutes from the cathedral; still within the city centre yet a world away. Les Marais de Bourges is one of the city’s most characterful areas, as important culturally as the museums and the cathedral, and a place to worship tranquillity.

I climb on board a flat-bottomed wooden barge, a traditional punt still used by marsh men and women as the only way to access some of the 135 hectares of greenery. These small allotments and garden plots, tended by private owners, are crossed by rivers, including the Yèvre and La Voiselle and a network of narrow waterways. The summer heat is savage, the paths in the city parks dusty and dry. Yet here, this lusciously verdant green lung offers plenty of sightseeing – teenage cygnets, lily pad carpets, rows of vegetables and fruit trees, miniature lawns and, in the distance, the mighty cathedral. The barge glides silently through the water, the peace broken only by the occasional plop of the punting pole plunging into the treacly-dark depths, and birds twittering cheerfully in the overhead willow trees.

Sweet smell of success

It’s not to historical Rue Bourbonneux that I’m lured on my return to the city streets, or to Maison NANA1807 for another menthol-inhaled sales pitch. Passing through a pair of opulent stone pillars, I arrive at Villa Monin. This grand townhouse is the shop window of the world-famous Monin syrup brand. The company originated and is based in Bourges, and here I can try a library of syrup flavours lined up on shelves in Bar 1912. I opt for a 1912 Spritz from the menu – a summery concoction of Fraise de Bois, elderflower and sparkling wine, a straw plunged into the syrupy-vibrant depths and topped with a sprig of gypsophila and rosemary. Here’s to Bourges – European Capital of Culture 2028. Santé!

BOURGES ESSENTIALS

GETTING THERE

BY PLANE

  • Paris Charles de Gaulle (271km) or Orly (236km) then a train or bus. BY CAR Motorways A71, exxt 7.

BY TRAIN

  • SNCF Paris-Austerlitz via Vierzon 2h 24m, Tours 1h 45m.

WHERE TO STAY

  • For a touch of splendour, try Hôtel de Panette, the former residence of the exiled Prince Charles de Bourbon with its private courtyard garden, close to the cathedral. For standard fare, the Ibis Bourges Centre offers clean and functional but ordinary rooms, meanwhile you’ve a choice of 4-star options including Hôtel de Bourbon – Mercure Bourges in a 17th-century former abbey, and Best Western Plus Hôtel d’Angleterre, adjacent to Palais Jacques Coeur. Camping de Bourges offers leafy surroundings within a 20-minute walk of the city centre.

TOURIST INFORMATION

www.bourgesberrytourisme.com

From France Today Magazine

Lead photo credit : © Shutterstock

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Caroline is a freelance writer with a focus on European travel. She has toured all areas of France, but none more so than the Loire Valley where she finds the combination of rich historical culture, rural landscape and exceptional architecture – not to mention outstanding wine – an irresistible lure to return again and again. Says Caroline, "With the focus over the next three years on the Loire Valley's connection to Leonardo da Vinci, lovers of art, architecture and French culture are in for a treat when visiting the region with the many additional events and activities on offer." Caroline is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.

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