Gargilesse-Dampierre is officially one of France’s “most beautiful villages”

  I’m always fascinated by stories from French history where someone rises from a remote city or tiny village in the deepest heart of the country to international fame.  We’ve seen several such stories in earlier post on this blog:  Blaise Pascal doing his famous experiments at the top of the Puy-de-Dome, the nobles of the House of Bourbon rising out of Montlucon to create a royal dynasty that still exists in Europe today, or the Marquis de Lafayette leaving his rustic home in the Auvergne to play a major role in the American Revolution. But it’s almost as interesting to find someone born in the big cities who abandons the bright lights to seek calm in the wild mountains […]