Creuse (; or ) is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. After Lozère, it is the second least populated department in France. It is bordered by Indre and Cher to the north, Allier and Puy-de-Dôme to the east, Corrèze to the south, and Haute-Vienne to the west. With 115,527 inhabitants (2023),

{| class=wikitable

! Commune

! Population (2023)

|-

| Guéret

| style="text-align: center;" | 12,955

|-

| La Souterraine

| style="text-align: center;" | 4,978

|-

| Aubusson

| style="text-align: center;" | 3,018

|-

| Sainte-Feyre

| style="text-align: center;" | 2,566

|-

| Bourganeuf

| style="text-align: center;" | 2,364

|}

Demographics

The population peaked at 287,075 in 1851, after which it declined gently until the First World War. During and after the war, the decline in population became much more rapid both because of the death and disruption that characterised the war years and because of the higher wages available to any workers with marketable skills in the economically more dynamic towns and cities outside Creuse. By 1921 the registered population had slumped by almost 38,000 (approximately 14%) in ten years to 228,244, and the decline continued throughout the twentieth century.

Over the last four decades of the twentieth century Creuse experienced the greatest proportional population decline of any French department, from 164,000 in 1960 to 124,000 in 1999 – a decrease of 24%. The department is thus unofficially sometimes dubbed as the "capital of French depopulation".

Politics

The President of the Departmental Council is Valérie Simonet of The Republicans.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"

!colspan=2| Party || Seats

|-

! style="background-color: " |

|The Republicans|| align="right" | 12

|-

! style="background-color: " |

|Miscellaneous right|| align="right" |6

|-

! style="background-color: " |

|Socialist Party|| align="right" | 8

|-

! style="background-color: " |

|Miscellaneous left|| align="right" | 4

|-

|}

Current National Assembly Representative

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!colspan="2"|Constituency!!Member!!Party

|-

|style="background-color: " |

| Creuse's constituency

| Bartholomé Lenoir

| Union of the Right for the Republic

|}

Culture

Language

Until the 1980s, Occitan was the primary language of rural areas. There remain three different Occitan dialects in use in Limousin, although their use is rapidly declining. These are:

  • Limousin () dialect
  • Auvergnat () dialect in the East
  • in the North, the Crescent transition area between Occitan and French is sometimes considered as a separate (basically Occitan) dialect called Marchois ().

Cuisine

The Creuse Cake is a dessert named after the region. It is made with butter and hazelnuts. There are many varieties, and they are sold throughout France.

Notable people

  • George Sand (1804–1878) She situated some of the action of her 1844 novel Jeanne in rural Boussac.
  • Thierry Ardisson (1949- ), host and journalist
  • Pierre d'Aubusson (1423–1503), Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaller) .
  • Jacques Barraband (1767–1809) painter and draftsman
  • Léonard-Léopold Forgemol de Bostquénard (1821–1897), general in the French Army.
  • Jean de Brosse (1375–1433) councillor to Charles VII of France
  • Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) Impressionist painter, owned a castle in Creuse
  • Gilles Clément (1943- ): prizewinning park and landscape designer
  • François Denhaut (1877–1952) inventor of flying boats
  • David Feuerwerker (1912–1980), rabbi of Creuse.
  • Armand Guillaumin (1841–1927) impressionist painter
  • Jean Guitton (1901–1999) Catholic philosopher and theologian
  • Marcel Jouhandeau (1888–1979) writer
  • Lucien Le Cam (1924–2000) statistician
  • Pierre Leroux (1797–1871) philosopher and political economist
  • Jean Lurçat (1892–1966) tapestry artist
  • Jules Marouzeau (1878–1964) Latinist and philologist
  • Pierre Michon (1945- ) novelist
  • Martin Nadaud (1815–1898) politician and writer
  • Raymond Poulidor (1936–2019) cyclist
  • Michael Riffaterre (1924–2006), writer and critic
  • Maurice Rollinat (1846–1903) poet
  • Jules Sandeau (1811–1883) novelist
  • Georges Sarre (1935- ) Secretary of State
  • Antoine Varillas (1624–1696) historian
  • Hubert Védrine (1947- ) Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Jacques Laffite (1943- ) racing driver
  • Jean-Pierre Jabouille (1942- ) racing driver has creusoises origins and has a property in Creuse, sponsor of a motor rally Creusekistan
  • Marcel Balsa, born on 1 January 1909 in Saint-Frion and died 11 August 1984 in Maisons-Alfort, French driver.
  • Nathalie Baye (1948- ) actor is a resident of the department
  • Victor Lanoux the actor settles in Creuse to La Chapelle-Taillefert
  • The lawyer Serge Klarsfeld and the comic Popeck took refuge through the organization of Felix Chevrier, the castle Masgelier in Le Grand-Bourg and stayed there several months
  • François Baroin, French politician native son of Dun-le-Palestel The summers were devoted to the Creuse, where the mother of the little Frenchman had a house.
  • Jean-Francois Cope, French politician
  • Claude Chabrol, filmmaker, spent part of his childhood in Sardent with his grandmother
  • Jean Auclair, (1946-) is a French politician.
  • Michel Vergnier, (1946-) Socialist politician, deputy mayor of Gueret since 29 November 1998.

Tourism

thumb|upright|Famous [[pacifist World War I memorial in Gentioux]]

As a traditionally rural and lightly populated area, with ancient and typical art de vivre, original stone architecture, no major urban centre and many heritage sites such as castles, abbeys and Celtic stone monuments: the Creuse department has become a Green tourism destination since the late 1990s. Creuse enjoys a temperate climate with mild springs and autumns, rather cold and snowy but sunny winters, and relatively warm and sunny summers, but not as hot as in the southern parts of France. Thanks to its preserved forested landscape, little pollution and wonderful stone buildings, many foreigners (notably British and Dutch, but also German and Belgian) have sought to buy holiday homes in Creuse.

The major tourist attractions are the tapestry museum in Aubusson and the many castles, notably those of Villemonteix, Boussac, and Banizette. The monastery of Moutier-d'Ahun has exceptional wood carvings from the 17th century. (:fr:Abbaye de Moutier-d'Ahun). After World War 1, some towns in France set up pacifist war memorials. Instead of commemorating the glorious dead, these memorials denounce war with figures of grieving widows and children rather than soldiers. Such memorials provoked anger among veterans and the military in general. The most famous is at Gentioux-Pigerolles in the department (see picture on the left). Below the column which lists the name of the fallen, stands an orphan in bronze pointing to an inscription 'Maudite soit la guerre' (Cursed be war). Feelings ran so high that the memorial was not officially inaugurated until 1990 and soldiers at the nearby army camp were under orders to turn their heads when they walked past.

The Chapelle du Mas-Saint-Jean is in Saint-Sulpice-le-Dunois. A local legend declares that Joan of Arc prayed there in about 1430.

Guéret, Creuse is also home to a large nearby animal park named Les Loups de Chabrières containing some of France's few remaining wolves, held in semi-captivity. It includes 24 European Grey Wolves, two Canadian White Wolves and two Canadian Black Wolves in five enclosures.

Motor racing Mas du Clos It is twelve kilometres from Aubusson at the foot of the family castle of Saint-Avit-de-Tardes. Pierre Bardinon creates all pieces in 1963.

<gallery>

File:ChateauDeVillemonteix.jpg|Villemonteix Castle in winter

File:Bourganeuf - Château.JPG|Bourganeuf Castle with infamous Cem Sultan tower

File:EvauxLesBains1.jpg|View of Evaux-les-Bains

File:PontSuspenduTardes1.jpg|19th-century bridge architecture in Creuse

File:Aubusson tour de l horloge.JPG|Aubusson's Medieval Clock Tower

File:Tapisserie d'Aubusson (Huet).JPG|typical Aubusson tapestry

File:PierresJaumatres3.jpg|Natural granitic site of Les Pierres-Jaumâtres, in Creuse

File:Monet The Petite Creuse River.jpg|Monet's Petite Creuse, 1889

File:Paysage en Creuse.JPG|Western Creuse typical landscape

File:Ruisseau du Langladure au Moulin.jpg|Small river in Creuse

File:ChateauBoussacSurPetiteCreuse.jpg|Boussac Castle, Creuse

Image:Pont senoueix vgen.jpg|Senoueix Bridge

Image:Vache-de-race-limousine-en-correze-2.jpg|typical Limousin cattle in Creuse

Image:Guéret Loups de Chabrières.JPG|The wolves of Chabrières

Image:Lac vassivière vue géné.jpg|Lake Vassivière in Creuse

</gallery>

See also

  • Cantons of the Creuse department
  • Communes of the Creuse department
  • Arrondissements of the Creuse department

References

  • Departmental Council website
  • Prefecture website
  • Official Tourism Website
  • Land of Gueret Portal (Portail du Pays de Guéret)
  • The English Language Portal for La Creuse
  • News from the Creuse and practical advice about living there, in English