Page 351 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

Magnificent Château de La
Palice, set upon a hill over-
looking the Besbre Valley
been renowned for cutlery
since the Middle Ages, when
legend has it that Crusaders
brought back techniques of
metalwork from the Middle
East. With grindstones
powered by dozens of water-
falls on the opposite bank
of the river, Thiers produced
everything from table knives
to guillotine blades, and
cutlery remains its major
industry today, much of it on
display in the Cutlery Museum,
the Musée de la Coutellerie.
The Old Town is filled with
architects to reconstruct day town has been an mysterious quarters including
the feudal château-fort at important industrial centre “the Corner of Chance” and
Lapalisse, creating a refined since the end of World War II. “Hell’s Hollow”, honeycombed
Renaissance castle, which has Not only does Issoire have a with tortuous streets and well-
been inhabited ever since by thriving aeronautical tradition, restored 14th- to 17th-century
his descendants. The salon doré it is also a mecca for glider houses. Many have elaborately
(gilded room) has a beamed pilots, who come from miles carved wooden façades, nota-
ceiling panelled in gold, and around to take advantage of bly the Maison du Pirou in place
two huge 15th-century the strong local air currents. Pirou. The view to the west
Flemish tapestries showing Issoire’s colourful 12th- from the rampart terrace,
the Crusader Knight Godefroy century abbey church of towards Monts Dômes and
de Bouillon and Greek hero St-Austremoine is one of the Monts Dore, is particularly
Hector, two of the nine classic great Romanesque churches splendid at sunset.
braves of chivalric legend. of the region. The capitals
From Lapalisse, the D480 depict scenes from the Life Musée de la Coutellerie
leads up through the beautiful of Christ (one of the Apostles "' ⌂ 58 rue de la
Besbre Valley past a handful at the Last Supper has fallen Coutellerie § 04 73 80 58 86
of other small, well-preserved asleep at the table), and # Apr–Sep: 10am–6pm daily;
châteaux, including Château imaginary demons and beasts. Mar & Oct by reservation only
de Thoury and Château The 15th-century fresco of the ¢ Jan–mid-Feb
Beauvoir. Though neither is Last Judgment shows Bosch-
open to the public, they can like figures of sinners being
be admired from the outside. cast into the mouth of a dragon INSIDER TIP
or carted off to hell. The Artisan Knives
nearby Tour de l’Horloge has Home to more than 100
10 scenes of Renais sance history. knife-making artisans,
Thiers is the perfect
Issoire place to pick up a pocket
! E5 ⌂ Puy de Dôme 11 knife. The town’s shops
are full of handmade
£ @ n 9 pl St-Paul; www. Thiers specimens from rare
issoire-tourisme.com knives with mammoth-
! E5 ⌂ Puy de Dôme £ @
Most of old Issoire was n Pl de Pirou; www.thiers- tooth handles costing
destro yed in the 16th-century tourisme.fr thou sands of euros to
Wars of Religion. The present- modest penknives
According to the writer La costing around €50.
Bruyère, Thiers “seems painted The town’s iconic knife
on the slope of the hill”, han- is “Le Thiers”, a hand-
The original Thermal ging dramatically as it does on made folding knife
Establishment building in a ravine over a sharp bend in that will last a lifetime.
the spa town of Vichy the River Durolle. The city has
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