PalenqueBob

Though virtually unknown outside of France i believe, the wild Sologne region just south and southeast of the Loire Valley between Blois and Orleans is a unique region that has long been popular with Parisians seeking a country get-away, and many of the old unique brick farmhouses here have been snapped up by city-dwellers as cozy rural retreats.
Long long ago the Sologne was farmland, but of very marginal quality and it was and is dotted by numerous etangs (swamps) - making this low-lying land a hardscrabble proposition for farming for the largely impoverished local agronomists.
So much of the land was abandoned and reverted to a wild natural state. Today it's still know for its many ponds and savage look - lots of wildflowers, birch trees, pine trees and other largely scrub brush, which is the haunt of many flora and fauna - hunters flock here, especially to stalk the elusive fearless sanglier, or wild pigs running amok in the region.
Regional culinary delicacies add another touch to why this practically unheard of region should be considered to a piece of France untouched virtually by foreign tourism.
The traditional Sologne farmhouses - made of brick with white mortar, look most un-French-like.

rex

Okay, this is ancient (six years old), but take a look at a (still valid) link to the NYTimes' Choice Tables' series on dining in the Sologne, in my post from the wayback archives:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;tid=820567

Best wishes,

Rex

cigalechanta

Here's an old one by Patricia Wells.

http://tinyurl.com/ycl2qq

PalenqueBob

Thanks both for the Times links - unfortunately my computer won't cooperate and throws me off but at least i could read the first paragraph of the Wells article. Will try on my son's laptop later. I've ridden my bicycle through this area several times and have camped there with my French son when he was young so rather fell in love with the area. Again thanks.

mpprh

Hi

And I'm a regular visitor, too !

Peter

BTilke

We went through part of the Sologne during our 2004 trip to Berry (which is a wonderful place to visit, highly under-rated). It's very interesting (but watch out for mosquitoes in summer).
FYI, the Gien pottery company recently issued a pattern called Sologne, the designs focusing on the wildlife of the area.

PalenqueBob

LE TRAIN BLANC - A DELIGHTFUL WAY TO SLICE THRU THE SOLOGNE
Running from Salbris, on the Paris-Vierzon mainline to the sleepy burg of Lucy-le-Malle, this unique toy-like narrow-gague diesel rail line presents rail fans a delightful day trip from Paris or Loire base and for everyone the chance for those sans cars to roll thru the heart of the wild Sologne.
From Salbris, the train rattles (yes rattles)through the legendary Sologne, an area of bogs, forests and scrubland romanticized in France as a 'sauvage' (wild) area especially known for its unique brick houses via Romarantin (sp?) to Gievres and then onto Valencay and Lucay.
It's best to transfer to the Vierzon-Tours mainline at Gievres, then mainline it back to Paris via Vierzon, or backtrack to Salbris as though the line actually goes on to Valencay, of chateau fame, to its terminus at Lucy-le-Malle the service on this stretch is so spotty that you can't day trip as schedules basically there are for school kids as this train often acts as a school bus on wheels.
For those basing in the Loire, take trains on the Tours-Vierzon main line and transfer at Gievres, go to Salbris, from there down to Vierzon and from there back towards Tours.
Train Blanc? Named so because it's a fragment of the former Le Blanc-Argent narrow-gauge line, so is named after le Blanc and has nothing to do with white; the current narrow-gague line is the only remaining fragment of a dense rail line that laced the Sologne before WWII.
France and Eurailpass valid in France are valid on this line.
Current schedules: www.voyages-sncf.com may have the schedules or may not in my experience but it does run several times daily Salbris-Gievres.

klondike

True that it is a less trafficked area, but one that contains wonderful natural beauty. I was fortunate enough to spend a long week end en Sologne as a guest of a family at their family estate during spring break years ago. Great meals--free range chicken (freshly dispatched by the son that morning), grilled freshwater trout from their pond--the roar of the fire in the chimney barely taking the cold off, and nights spent listening to WWII stories when their house was commandeered by Nazi big-wigs. I still have two beautiful egg cups (one chipped, hélas) recovered from the dump heap the Germans left behind the house. Instead of doing dishes, they tossed the the china and silver out with the garbage. Fortunately, they cleaned up nicely, besides having normal age craquelure. I couldn't believe it when the family just gave them to me! My hostess is now well in her eighties but still resides with her son in the beautiful red bricked estate house she loves.

Thanks for a trip down memory lane, Palenquebob!

PalenqueBob

Klondike: thanks for the intriguing story and experience. It too brought me down memory lane - my late mother-in-law and her family of several kids lived in Orleans when the Germans first invaded the area...and they too have war stories - they and everyone else fled the town by putting all their possessions on bicycles and walking them and their family south thru the Sologne - this strategy flopped when the German army caught up with everyone and urged them to return to their homes. One thing they promised was that the boulangeries would be open so that folks could get bread - that apparently was a deciding factor that life under the Germans need not be a death sentence and they went back home...where the local Gestapo was billeted in the next door house!

Thanks for the memories Klondike!