The Auld Alliance - France & Scotland

The Scottish Connection - Aubigny
I always knew that the Scots and the French had more in common than the Scots and the Sassenachs (Poms for you non Celtic people). A lot of Scottish country dancing came from their association with the French Royal Court, but who of you knew that the French actually gave one of their towns to the Scots as a thank you present?!!
On our drive from our gîte at Prunay to our gîte at Savigny, Alan and I decided to stop at the first pretty town we came to at coffee time and we ended up at Aubigny sur Nère, ville royale (royal town) ecossaise (Scottish) since 1423! We knew nothing about this town, but we both wanted a coffee and the road into town had lots of the half timbered medieval buildings that I love, a castle / chateau and lots of pretty floral arrangements next to the car park. Who could resist?
The first thing we noticed was all the advertising in the castle had lots of mannequins in Scottish tartans and bagpipes. Just thinking it was some sort of marketing promotion, and setting drinks as the priority, we proceeded to a street side cafe, where I had a great conversation in French with the lady owner, we watched a wedding party arrive at the castle and drank excellent hot chocolates (I changed from wanting a coffee to a chocolate) and then we decided to explore the town further. Next to the brilliant medieval tourist office was a lovely little cottage called Mary Stuart’s House! I had to find out more!
In short: “this small Gallo-Roman* town of Albiniacum really made its entry into French history when the monks of St Martin of Tours handed it over to Philippe August in the 12th century. Nearly 6 centuries ago (1423) Charles VII of France presented the town to John Stuart, the most renowned of the heads of the Scottish Army, which enabled him to end the Hundred Years War. The chateau of Aubigny and the Verrerie were built on the orders of Berault and Robert Stuart, commanders of the French Kings’armies and contemporaries of Leonardo da Vinci (there are lots of references to Da Vinci in France as I mentioned in an earlier email). In 1512 this town of the Stuarts was charred by a massive fire. Robert had it rebuilt at a cost of 3 forests. It only took 40 years to rebuild the city. Given impetus by the Stuarts and directed by Colbert, the cloth industry and trade established the reputation of Aubigny. Louise of Kéroualle, the duchess of Portsmouth, was given the Duchy of Aubigny by Louis XIV. She embellished the chateau of the Stuarts and left some pleasant gardens. In 1841, the chateau was acquired by the Vogué family who still own it.”
“ “The treaty of Mutual Assistance” or the “Auld Alliance” was signed between France and Scotland in 1295”.
(Copied from the tourist brochure) * Gallo-Roman means it dates back to the times of the Gauls and the Roman Empire
So as you can see, the town caught our attention. There were long streetscapes of medieval buildings, remnants of the old mills and a thriving small shopping area. Needless to say our short coffee stop turned into a couple of hours as we wandered around the streets and soaked up the architecture.
I am still coming to terms with the concept of giving a town away as a present. Just think, if John Howard had helped George Bush as much he thought he had, he might have received a country town from the Americans! Just think of the opposite – that’s even worse!!!
In addition, Aubigny prides itself on entering the floral decoration competitions and one of the shops won first prize for a commercial premises on a street front, so it was a very pretty street.
We did not spend too long there on the first visit because we needed to get to our gîte, but we took our friends Cecily, Denise and Richard there and we will be taking our friend Heather there in the next few weeks. It has become one of our favourite villages – a hidden treasure.