The Charollais is cattle country, taking its name from the pretty little water-enclosed market town of CHAROLLES, with its 32 bridges, on the main N79 road, and in turn giving its name to one of the world's most illustrious breeds of cattle: the white, curly-haired and stocky Charollais, bred for its lean meat. The fields south of Paray are full of the beasts. Throughout this landscape, scattered across the rich farmland along the Arconce River, are dozens of small villages, all with more or less remarkable Romanesque churches, offspring of Cluny in its vigorous youth.ANZY-LE-DUC, about 15km south of Paray off the main D982 to Roanne, boasts an exquisite complex of buildings: a perfect Romanesque church with jackdaw chatter echoing off the octagonal belfry, side by side with the remains of the old priory incorporated into a sort of fortified farm looking out over the Arconce valley, the whole built in a rich, warm stone. MONTCEAUX-L'ÉTOILE, a little nearer to Paray, has its special charm too: a quiet, worn church with beautiful sculptures adorning the porch, standing likewise above the Arconce valley, and, a little way down the village street, a curious tower-like house where a Marquis of Vichy is said to have practised alchemy with the notorious Italian wizard, Cagliostro. There's a farm campsite (tel 03.85.25.38.66; May–Sept) on the Paray side of the village. Ten kilometres to the west of Paray, the Arconce flows into the Loire just upstream from DIGOIN, France's chief centre of pottery manufacture. Although it's not a place you're likely to do more than pass through, the nineteenth-century bridge carrying the Canal du Centre over the Loire is worth a look (you can take a short trip across on a sightseeing boat for €7.60) and the riverside quays make a quiet, sunny picnic spot. the town also has two very good hotel-restaurants: De la Gare, 79 av de Gaulle (tel 03.85.53.03.04, fax 03.85.53.14.70; €40–55; closed mid-Jan to mid-Feb; restaurant menus from €17, closed Wed except in July & Aug), and Les Diligences, 14 rue Nationale (tel 03.85.53.06.31, www.les-diligences.com; €30–40; closed mid-Nov to mid-Dec; restaurant menus from €16, closed Mon evening & Tues except in July & Aug). There's a campsite, De la Chevrette, by the Loire on the Moulins road (tel 03.85.53.11.49; April–Oct).
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