Several villages in Berry claim to be located in the geographical center of France. But in this war of the commons, who is right?
No offense to Parisians who like to believe they are in the center of France, there are no less than eight villages in Berry, a historic province of France during the Ancien Régime, which claim their status as the geographical center of France. . How to explain this? Since our territory has changed over time, the nerve center of France has been calculated differently each time.
Indeed, when some calculations take into account the French territory as a whole with the DOM-TOMs, others are satisfied with metropolitan France including Corsica, or only mainland France excluding Corsica, not to mention calculations that take into account the volume of mountains, lakes or ponds. Discover the list of the 8 contenders for the title below:
So, who is right ? The oldest mention of central France is in Bruère-Allichamps in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region. This is evidenced by a Roman marker from the 3rd century which sits in the center of the town, installed by the Duke of Béthune-Charost in 1799, where a text indicates that “tradition designates this monument as the center of France”. This assertion was verified in 1869 by the geographer Adolphe Joanne. In 1976, this center of France even appeared in the cinema in the opening scene of L’Argent de poche by François Truffaut (1976). But several municipalities argue that the borders have since evolved, and they are not wrong.
It was finally the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) that decided in 1993. If we include Corsica, the center of France is therefore at Nassigny in the Allier. If we exclude the Isle of Beauty, Vesdun in the Cher is the lucky one.
