Prefecture of Creuse
Population: 12,800 (28,500 in the Greater Guéret urban community)
Specialities: creusois (cake), macaroons, tréipaïs (chestnut cakes), marchois, maupuy, chabrière (pastries). Potato pâté.
Personalities: Marcel Jouhandeau (writer), Fernand Maillaud (painter), Madeleine Chapelle (Ingres' wife and muse), Danièle Gilbert (TV presenter, grew up in Guéret), Marc Durant (cyclist).
Economy: the town's main employers are the hospital, the town hall, Sauthon Industries (design and decoration of babies' bedrooms) and Amis (Groupe SIFCOR, production of car parts). Montluçon-Guéret airport.
Sport: ES Guéret (football). Rugby Club guérétois Creuse. Mad Jacques Stop (hitchhiking race).
Festivals: Hard Mess Festival (hardcore music), Nuits d'Été. Furibondes (family planning meetings).
Websites: www.ville-gueret.fr, www.tourisme-creuse.com
Masons of Creuse
The middle of the 15th century saw the emergence of an original migration of peasant builders from the Limousin region, particularly Creuse. A large population, less fertile land and fragmented estates meant that men had to seek additional income. They became builders and left their land from spring to Christmas. Their fame in royal palaces is attested to as early as the 17th century. In the centuries that followed, the term "Limousin" evolved into Limousinage and Limousinerie, describing the assembly of "rubble stones assembled with joints and wedges, filled with earth or lime mortar".
Generations of Creusois - the Villedo, Bergeron, Tarrade and Mandonnet families being the most famous - became contractors or master builders for the king's buildings, constructing palaces, castles, town houses, fortifications, canals, cathedrals and churches for the nobility and clergy at Versailles, the Louvre, the Tuileries and Vaux-le-Vicomte. By the end of the 18th century, one tenth of the population of the Marche and Combraille regions were working on building sites all over France - 15,000 to 20,000 men, including 3,000 in Paris.
Their working conditions were harsh, prompting Maurice Agulhon to write in his preface to the Mémoires de Léonard by the mason and MP Martin Nadaud that the Creuse mason was "the first model of the immigrant worker in France". In the second half of the 19th century, these conditions of exclusion encouraged them to educate themselves and get involved in political and social struggles. The 19th century saw the peak of this migration. Every year, from spring to Christmas, 50,000 people from Limousin - including 35,000 from Creuse - or two out of every three men of working age, left their native villages nine months out of the year to work on their building sites. Paris and Lyon remained the main destinations, but families also settled and established roots deep in the provincial countryside.
GUÉRET AND CYCLING
A regular stage on the Tour du Limousin, with around thirty finishes, Guéret also hosted the men's Tour de France in 2004, for a sprint finish dominated by Robbie McEwen ahead of Thor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady. Thomas Voeckler held the Yellow Jersey at the time.
A stage of the Tour féminin en Limousin, which finished in Ussel, also started in Guéret in 2009. Belgian Grace Verbeke, winner of the Tour of Flanders the following year, won the stage and also took the final classification. She is now sports director at Lotto Dstny.
Among the riders born in Guéret, we should mention Marc Durant, one of the peloton's great entertainers, who took part in five Tours de France between 1981 and 1985 as a team-mate of Bernard Hinault and then of Jean-René Bernaudeau, finishing 30th in 1983. He won a stage in the GP du Midi Libre in 1984 and finished 9th in the Vuelta in 1982.
Guéret is also the birthplace of cyclocross specialist David Menut, a former pro with Auber93, pioneer Charles Habert, who took part in the 1905 and 1906 Tours, and young Baptiste Vadic, currently with TotalEnergies.
SIGHTS
Hôtel des Moneyroux
Construction: 15th century.
History: also known, incorrectly, as the château of the Counts of La Marche, as no Count ever lived in Guéret, it was built in 1447 by Antoine Allard, Lord of Moneyroux and Treasurer of the County of La Marche. The mansion was probably built partly on the site of a small castle that existed in the 11th century. Towards the end of the 15th century, a hexagonal turret was built in the north corner to house a spiral staircase. At the same time, a new main building, built at right angles to the old one, was added to enlarge the mansion. Between 1510 and 1522, a forebuilding with a staircase was built on the south-east façade. In the 17th century, the hotel was extended to the south and west, in the former town moat, with the construction of three rooms adjoining part of the main building.
Special features: the first floor features paintings depicting landscapes of the region.
Current use: it is now the headquarters of the Creuse Departmental Council. It can be visited during Heritage Days.
Listed as: historic monument in 1941.
Presidial court of Guéret
Construction: 17th century.
History: The eastern part of the town hall is what remains of the 17th-century building that served as the courthouse for the presidial and seneschal of the Marche until the Revolution, then as the courthouse for the tribunal and assize court of Creuse until 1835.
Characteristics: the squared-off facade is built of ashlar granite, with pilasters framing the openings, a sculpted cartouche above a window, a stringcourse and a sculpted twist. Stone stairway with landings and round-headed double arches. The ground floor room in the elevated wing has preserved an old fireplace and its beamed ceiling. The gateway on the Place du Marché, giving access to the passageway leading to the building, is adorned with pilasters.
Listed as: Historic Monument in 1934.
Sénatorerie Museum
Description: The museum has never been renovated since it moved into the 18th-century Hôtel de la Sénatorerie in 1905. Now closed, the museum is being enlarged and modernised. The historic building is to be renovated and connected to a new cube-shaped edifice, built by the Basalt Architecture studio on the site of a former convent that was demolished because it was too costly to restore. The collection, comprising 17,000 works, was originally scheduled to be reinstalled in 2022, with the museum due to reopen to the public in 2023; in the end, the work was delayed and the deadline has been extended to 2026.
Giant labyrinth of the Monts de Guéret
Description: This permanent plant maze, created in 1996 on the edge of the Chabrières forest, is one of the largest in Europe. There are question and answer games to help you get lost and find your way back. There are also trails and activities for children.
Chabrières Wolves Park
Description: The Monts de Guéret animal park is a zoo located at Badant, in the communes of Savennes, Guéret and Sainte-Feyre, in the small massif of the Monts de Guéret, in the heart of the Chabrières forest. Opened in 2001, it is home to around fifty wolves living in semi-liberty in six enclosures, the largest of which measures 19,300 m2. It is managed by the Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Guéret.
TO EAT
Creusois
Description: A typical Guéret recipe, the Creusois cake must be both moist and melt-in-the-mouth. The recipe for this sweet, seemingly simple cake, made from flour, sugar, egg whites and hazelnuts, requires a special touch. The secret? The crunch of perfectly toasted hazelnut pieces.
