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
is 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 are likely to do more than pass through, the
nineteenth-century bridge
carrying the Canal du Centre over the Loire is worth a look 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;
€34-46; closed mid-Jan to mid-Feb; restaurant from €20.58, closed Wed
except in July & Aug), and Les Diligences , 14 rue Nationale (tel
03.85.53.06.31, fax 03.85.88.92.43; €34-46; closed Nov 20-Dec 10;
restaurant from €14.48, 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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