BOURGES, the chief town of the rather bland region of Berry, is some way from the Loire valley proper but linked to it historically. In search for a Bourges hotel, look at , this website. The miserable Dauphin (later Charles VII), mockingly dubbed "King of Bourges" by the English, retreated to the city after Henry V's victory at Agincourt had put all of northern France under English control. The presence of one of the finest Gothic cathedrals in France, rising gloriously out of the unpretentious and handsome medieval quarter, provides reason enough for making a detour, but the city also offers an impressive mansion belonging to the Dauphin's financial advisor, Jacques Coeur, and an unusually successful ambient lighting that transforms the streets of the old town every evening in July and August (and from Thursday to Saturday in May, June and September).Bourges's festival programme is also impressive. Les Printemps de Bourges (www.printemps-bourges.com) features hundreds of contemporary music acts from new rock groups to famous rappers, and lasts for one week during the French Easter holidays. More esoteric are the Festival Synthèse, an electronic and acoustic music bash during the first week of June, and Un Été à Bourges (late June to late Sept), a line-up of free, outdoor performances of anything from local organ music to Chinese jazz.
Pages in section ‘Bourges’: The City, Information, Restaurants, Cathedral, Beyond the Cathedral.
| 