Romorantin — "deepest" France

Welcome to la France profonde

on a Monday afternoon — main street in Romo

The Michelin green guide says that Romorantin is un peu, par sa position géographique, le nombril d'une certain France profonde, rurale et traditionnelle — Romorantin is, "in a certain sense, because of its geographical location, the bellybutton of a kind of 'deepest' France, rural and traditional." From my point of view, that is a very good thing.

Romo is central France — the region is called Le Centre, after all.

Romorantin sits on the banks of the Sauldre River, and there are several islands in the river at the center of town. Some of them are developed and at least one is a big park. The Sauldre is a tributary of the Cher River, which runs through Saint-Aignan, Chenonceaux, and the city of Tours.

Water levels in the Sauldre and the Cher are very high, after
all the rain we've had in France this year. Notice the modern
apartment building on the banks of the river.

Romo is a small town in the middle of a big forest full of lakes and fields. A lot of people from the Paris area come to the Sologne, which covers an area of 2,000 sq. mi., for vacations and to enjoy the feeling of country and "wilderness" here. Now there's an autoroute linking Paris to Romorantin, and the drive takes between 2½ and 3½ hours, depending on traffic. Orléans is about an hour north of Romo, and Bourges, another good-size city, is less than an hour southeast.

The main bridge and the waterworks in Romo

The Sauldre and the park at the center of Romo

Romo has a long history, of course. The Sologne was occupied by the Romans, as archeological digs have shown. It became Christian in the 4th century of our era. As the Roman Empire collapsed, there were "invasions" of "barbarians" from Eastern Europe. Later, the counts of Blois and Bourges, and the dukes of Orléans, controlled parts of the territory. The villages of Romorantin and Lanthenay existed as long as 1200 years ago.

One of Romo's favorite sons,
memorialized by a bust in the town's public gardens

Five hundred years ago, François Ier, the French king who built Chambord, expanded Fontainebleau, and brought the Italian Renaissance to France, spent his childhood and youth in Romo. His queen, Claude de France, was born in the town.

Raking up magnolia blossoms looks like a full-time job for this man

Young king François had great plans for Romorantin, for which he had great affection. He asked Leonardo da Vinci, who spent the last years of his life in nearby Amboise and Blois, to design a château and elaborate gardens for the queen mother, Louise.

The war memorial in Romo, on the banks of the river

Unfortunately, an outbreak of plague prevented the realization of the king's projects. Instead of redesigning Romorantin, the Renaissance king turned his attention to the big "hunting lodge" at Chambord. And Romorantin and the Sologne languished — isolated, rural, and undeveloped.