A small Scottish-looking colourful town.
At the end of the 12th century, King Philippe Auguste turned Aubigny-sur-Nère into a royal town and had it fortified. After the 100 years war (XIVth & XVth centuries) the next king Charles VII gave the Aubigny Estate and lordship to Jean Stuart of Darnley, a Scottish army constable as a reward for helping France to get rid of the English army, according to the Auld Alliance (a mutual alliance treaty signed in the XIIIth century by Scotland and France). Béraud and Robert Stuart, then lords of Aubigny and contemporaries had the castle built in the XVIth century. They also offered the trees of 3 forests of theirs to rebuild the town after the terrible fire of 1522, and it adorned with beautiful half timbered houses. Later on, King Louis XIV granted this lordship to the Duchess of Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, his special ambassador to the English monarch King Charles II who held her as his favorite for a while. She will have the castle extended as well as the park and she asked Le Nôtre (Versailles palace gardener) to designe it. The lordship will be turned into a duchy especially for her.
Since 1990, Aubigny has celebrated its tight links with Scotland every year by organizing a huge feast around July 14th (the French-Scottish feast) with pipe-bands parades, shows, concerts, a Scottish goods market, a medieval open air market, highlands games : a definitely entertaining moment !
