Les galeries sur la Creuse
The Venice of Berry, seen from the Vieux Pont
In Argenton, the houses of the old town jut their wooden galleries out over the river. You take them all in at a glance from the Vieux Pont. It's free, and it's outdoors.
The upper town grew up at the foot of the fortress from the 12th century. In the 15th, the lower town spread to the far bank, and the Vieux Pont links the two. In the Middle Ages, the bridge itself carried houses and shops, demolished in the 19th century.
What remains are the façades overhanging the water, with their wooden galleries and balustrades. Hence the nickname Venice of Berry, for the reflections.
Two vantage points. The Vieux Pont, at the water's edge. And the Esplanade de la Bonne-Dame, on the mound of the old fortress dismantled on Richelieu's orders in 1632, from where you take in the whole town and valley.
Up there, a gilded copper Virgin, six and a half metres tall and three tonnes, hoisted onto the bell tower in 1899. She arrived by train, and it took ten oxen and thirteen horses to haul her up from the station.