“This summer’s event, from July 10-12, will be of particular importance”, explains Martine Mallet, the Deputy Mayor in charge of Culture. Some 130 “highly motivated” volunteers organise the annual Fêtes Franco-Écossaises (Franco-Scottish Festival), which attracts around 20,000 visitors. In terms of cuisine, The Cutty Sark pub – which boasts mahogany woodwork and tartan carpets – serves haggis, the kitchen of the Town Twinning Committee’s Christiane Morice produces fudge and ‘The Aubigny Auld Alliance’, a 12-year-old pure malt whisky, is sold by local shops. The Pipe Band have even been invited to play Brittany’s prestigious Festival Interceltique de Lorient, where Celtic music is taken very seriously, indeed! Meanwhile, The Aubigny Auld Alliance Pipe Band features the town’s notaire, local police adjutant, a chef and several young ladies, all of whom learned to play the bagpipes from Ketty, a Scottish student on a language study holiday who ended up marrying one of her pupils, a fireman named Alban. Today, Aubigny’s approach to its Scottish heritage is touched by humour – a giant statue of a Scotsman who could almost be from the film Braveheart stands on the edge of the town, which boasts a traditional British red telephone box and a nursery called Kilts et Culottes. Plagued by court battles and fraternal squabbles, the 5th Duke put everything up for sale in 1840, and the Château de la Verrerie was bought by the Vogüe family, its present owners. The Richmond family was ‘more London than Berry’ and this contributed to their property being seized in 1792, during the French Revolution, although it was returned in 1803, following the signing of the Treaty of Amiens. Upon her death in 1734, the Duchy was transferred to her grandson, Charles Lennox II, the Duke of Richmond. Pious and charitable, she devoted herself to the town’s inhabitants and extended the castle – the present-day Hôtel de Ville – and its park, which is currently named the Parc de la Duchesse de Portsmouth in her honour and is said to have been designed by André Le Notre. Louise was hated in London and adored in Aubigny. The beautiful Louise had arranged England’s neutrality during the Franco-Flemish War and so it was a double irony that the ‘City of the Stuarts’ now belonged to an English family! Louis XIV transferred the Duchy-Peerage to Louise de Kéroualle, the Duchess of Portsmouth and a favourite of the King of England, Charles II, with whom she had a son. The very last Stuart died in 1672, without an heir, and Aubigny was returned to the French crown, but not for long. Today, many of the town’s outstanding surviving facades date from this reconstruction, including several preserved by the layers of ‘roughcast’ with which they were covered. He made improvements to both Aubigny Castle and the Château de la Verrerie, which were part of his fiefdom, and when a terrible fire broke out in 1512, he helped the town’s inhabitants to rebuild with timber from his forests. Bernard’s cousin, Robert Stuart, who fought in the Italian Wars (1494-1559), was awarded the baton of Marshall of France. John Stuart’s grandson, Bernard the 4th Lord of Aubigny, was called Béraud by the French and nicknamed the “knight beyond reproach”, as was his Gallic compatriot in battle, the Chevalier Bayard. In 1423, in the name of the Franco-Scottish ‘Auld Alliance’, King Charles VII of France awarded Sir John Stuart of Darnley, a Constable of the Scottish army, the town and its surrounding lands, in thanks for his services against the English during the Hundred Years War.Īubigny-sur-Nère then remained under Scottish control for two and half centuries and the Stuart dynasty left a lasting mark. Sited in the historic province of Berry, which is now in the Cher département of the Centre-Val de Loire region, Aubigny-sur-Nère is proud of its Franco-Scottish heritage as the ‘City of the Stuarts’. This charming town is well worth a detour for its half-timbered Renaissance facades, Gothic church, castle – which was extended in the 17th century – and the La Nère River that runs through it. All around are forests, meadows and vales: a symphony of nature. Aubigny-sur-Nère is a delightful town with 5,900 inhabitants on the Route Jacques Coeur, which takes in the Châteaux of Culan, Ainay-le-Vieil and Meillant, amid the étangs (lakes) of Sologne and the hills of Sancerre.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |