Villages
France has many pretty villages scattered throughout but some have extra something to deserve the appellation ‘beautiful’.
For this reason in 1981 Charles Ceyrac, the then mayor of Collonges-la-Rouge, in the Dordogne, came up with an idea to promote this concept.
66 of his mayoral colleagues throughout France formed an association which eventually included 155 villages. Known as ‘Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, the aim was not to create ‘theme parks’ but to attract tourists to ‘living’ villages thereby helping to conserve them.