Allier: Vichy's Complicated Past and Bourbon Heritage
Allier lies in the northern Auvergne, a department of bocage farmland, thermal towns, and Bourbon heritage. Moulins, the prefecture, was the capital of the Duchy of Bourbon and has a Gothic cathedral with a famous triptych by the Master of Moulins. Vichy, the department's most recognizable name, was the seat of the French collaborationist government from 1940 to 1944, a history the thermal spa town has struggled to move beyond.
Vichy's thermal springs and Belle Epoque architecture attracted European elites in the nineteenth century. Montlucon, the department's largest town by population, is an industrial centre with a medieval old quarter. The Allier river, a tributary of the Loire, runs through the department. The population is about 335,000 and declining. The Troncais forest, one of the finest oak forests in Europe, supplies wood for wine barrel cooperages.
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Allier lies in the northern Auvergne, a department of bocage farmland, thermal towns, and Bourbon heritage. Moulins, the prefecture, was the capital of the Duchy of Bourbon and has a Gothic cathedral with a famous triptych by the Master of Moulins. Vichy, the department's most recognizable name, was the seat of the French collaborationist government from 1940 to 1944, a history the thermal spa town has struggled to move beyond.
Vichy's thermal springs and Belle Epoque architecture attracted European elites in the nineteenth century. Montlucon, the department's largest town by population, is an industrial centre with a medieval old quarter. The Allier river, a tributary of the Loire, runs through the department. The population is about 335,000 and declining. The Troncais forest, one of the finest oak forests in Europe, supplies wood for wine barrel cooperages.
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