This medieval city in Eastern France was one of the capitals of the Europe-spanning Duchy of Savoy.
And in this capacity, it got its marquee monument: The Royal Monastery is from the early 1500s founded as a place to bury and pay respect to the Dukes and their families. Margaret of Austria was the woman behind it, and you’ll be moved by her story. The old center of Bourg-en-Bresse is sprinkled with half-timbered houses that instead of being museum pieces are used for shops and amenities, which somehow makes them more alive. And simply have to journey out into the wider Bresse countryside, which has an identity all of its own. Let's explore the best things to do in Bourg-en-Bresse.
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1. Royal Monastery
A French national monument, this stunning monument was ordered by one of Renaissance Europe’s most powerful women as a dynastic burial place. Margaret of Austria was the Duchess of Savoy and governed the Habsburg Netherlands twice in the first decades of the 16th century.
There’s a lot to get through on a guided tour of the monastery, which amazingly has three two-story cloisters.
Linger to admire the glazed tiling on the roof of the church then go in to be blown away by Conrad Meit’s extraordinary marble tomb effigies of Margaret, her husband Philibert and his mother, Margaret of Bourbon.
2. Musée de Brou
In the second of the monastery’s three cloisters is Bourg-en-Bresse’s municipal museum. A lot of what you’ll find in these galleries were the property of one man: Thomas Riboud helped to save the monastery from destruction in the 19th century and had it protected as a “Monument-National”, and later donated his art collection to the city.
Much of the space is dedicated to painting from the 15th to the 19th century by French and Flemish artists. See the portraits of the monastery’s founder, Margaret of Austria and her nephew Emperor Charles V by Bernard van Orley who was Charles’ favorite painter. There’s also earthenware, furniture and religious sculpture up to the 17th century.
3. Old Town
Allow some time to discover the best of Bourg-en-Bresse’s historic center. Occasionally, you will be surprised by an interesting building, such as Maison Gorrevod, a large 15th-century wooden framed house that loses sight of the streets of Rue du Palais.
At 5 Teynière Street, there's a splendid Ancien Régime at the magnificent Hôtel Marron de Meillonnas, a villa with an interior named by Baron in 1772. On your jaunt around the town, you’ll be sidetracked by the fabulous little specialty shops selling wine, poultry, chocolate, corn-flour biscuits and bleu cheese from the surrounding region.
4. Demeure Hugon
Also known as the Maison de Bois (Wooden House), the Demeure Hugon is a gorgeous colombage house at 16 Rue Gambetta.
Dating to 1496, the house is on a shopping street, with a ground floor take up by a high-street chain, but there’s a small plaque by the entrance indicating the age of the building and its status as an official historic monument.
The lower level still has the same openings as it did 500 years ago, and above it are three stories of timber framing, each floor sticking out over the level below and anchored by corbels.
5. Apothicairerie de l’Hôtel-Dieu
The old Bourg-en-Bresse Hospital, located a few streets southeast of the center. It dates back to 1782 and one of the remarkable things is that the internal pharmacy has hardly changed for more than 200 years.
It was run by nuns before closing in 1963 and is now reopened as a museum providing a rare photograph of medicine from the time of death. There are two rooms lined with shelves and a working lab.
The magnificent wooden cabinets with antique books and vases and small packages are an intersection of Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. Many of these containers still contain their generic medicines, although you may be horrified by some ingredients!
6. Église Notre-Dame
This church was built with a brilliant white stone in the 1500s, just as the Flamboyant Gothic style was being replaced by the new Renaissance architecture. So there’s a fusion of both designs, as the apse and nave are both Gothic, while the western facade and domed tower, completed later, are clearly from the Renaissance.
Of the many things to see within are the wooden choir stalls, carved in the 1530s, a 13th-century Black Madonna statue, the sculpted pulpit from 1760, the great organ from 1682 and stained glass windows going back to 1526.
7. Porte des Jacobins
On the corner of Jul Jules Migonney and Rue de la République is a historical site with an interesting story to tell. The Porte des Jacobins is a portal from a 15th-century convent, and the delicate pointed arch is all that is left of the building after it was burned down during the Revolution.
Pause here for a moment before heading to Rue Jules Migonney, where there’s a lovely row of timber-framed houses that were where the medieval city’s drapers and weavers had their workshops.
8. Bresse Countryside
Bourge-en-Bresse is a unique agricultural area with many special features including food, dialect, architecture, and traditions. A typical Bresse farmhouse, for instance, will be half-timbered, with ears of corn hanging from its porch.
Capping the roof will be a “Saracen” or Moorish-style chimney, which looks a little like a minaret.
It’s easy to realize when you’re driving through Bresse, as the farmland is irrigated by many tributaries of the Saône River, and is covered with poultry farms, raising more than 1,200,000 chickens every year.
It’s also a region that is easy to embrace as there are show farms and museums showing off Bresse’s heritage.
9. Pérouges
This walled hill-top village is one of those places that makes you wonder if you’ve entered a time-warp. Pérouges is only a small community but has more than 80 buildings registered as historic monuments on its twisting cobbled streets.
Most are either rustic stone cottages or half-timbered houses, with wisteria creeping up the walls. On the central square, there’s a 200-year-old lime tree and you can go up the village’s watchtower, which used to belong to a medieval castle.
It will come as no surprise that Pérouges has been a shooting location for many historically-themed movies. Four different versions of the Three Musketeers have been filmed on these streets since 1921.
10. Grottes du Cerdon
A simple excursion from Bourge-en-Bresse, these caves have a few qualities that lift them above a normal trip underground. Yes, you can see the usual the stalactites and stalagmites, and watch the calcium-rich water dripping from one concretion to the next.
But it’s also exciting to know that you’re in the home of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, who used the caves up to 17,000 years ago, leaving behind bones, weapons, and tools.
Another cool feature is the spectacular belvedere, a prehistoric shelter that opens out over the vineyards of the Cerdon Valley.
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