France
Le Charolais-Brionnais
Le Charolais-Brionnais
Charolais-Brionnais is a region in southern Burgundy known for cattle farming, specifically the breeding of the local Charolais cattle. The proposed property is the core of this region and includes areas of the Arconce valley and the Brionnais plateau. In the 17th century, farmland began to be converted into pasture, a process that ended in the second half of the 20th century. The resulting cultural landscape, the so-called bocage, is characterised by small fields surrounded by hedges and drystone walls.
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- Le Charolais-Brionnais, paysage culturel de l'élevage bovin (ID: 6314)
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- France
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On tentative list 2018
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History of Le Charolais-Brionnais
- 2018: Added to Tentative List
- Added to tentative list
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We explored the Charolais-Brionnais area (a “pays”, in French) during a sunny week-end in May 2024. Charolaises cows (together with Bazadaises, from the South-West of France) are very well known in France for being the paramount of beef meat. What makes the proposed area for WHS special is that is it totally dedicated to the breeding of these cows, and the landscape was completely transformed and adapted to that activity some 250 years ago : fields were replaced by meadows, bordered by hedges or lines of trees. The result is a green, hilly “bocage” landscape, dotted with white cows here and there.
Although other areas (such as Normandy) show similar features, Charolais-Brionnais area stands for its authenticity and great unity – no modern buildings in the small villages, no highways. No real highlights either : the best thing to do is just to stroll (actually, drive) through the area and enjoy the landscape – we went from Paray-le-Monial to Semur-en-Brionnais (two strong candidates for the yet-to-come “Cluny sites” TWHS !) then to Charolles, making different stops on the way to visit old churches (many of them in that area!) or picture cows – which turned out to be a not-so-easy task : having the animals close enough, a good light, a nice back-ground is a difficult combination to achieve.
We stayed for two nights in a farm. The guests rooms were located in the oldest, historical building : a typical one that farmers of the area built when …
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February 2022 - on our campertrip from south France back to Berlin we chose the road with the most WHS on the way. Between Vichy and the Bourgogne we picked a road through the agricultural area of Charolais brionnaise which reminded us a lot of the English landscapes in Cornwall.
Many stone walls behind which we could spot the characteristic white cows. Unfortunately we could not find any remarkable spot to have a break, maybe late lunch and get an impression of the rural life out here. In late February the only thing we could see along the roadside were kebabs and pizza. A pitty for such a nice landscape, and regarding the french cuisine. Hence we ended up in Charolle quite fast, where at least a few bakeries were still open and we had something similar to dinner
Our short glimpse at the landscape was anyway positive. With a more tourist infrastructure it might be worse returning here again and stay the night on a farm.
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