Les Nuits Lumière de Bourges : a spectacular night-time

Created in 1999, the course has been reinvented in 2019 thanks to video mapping.
On 5 sites linked by a blue thread and guided by Ursine, the emblem of Jean de Berry, take advantage of this itinerary to discover or rediscover Bourges.
The Night Lights invite you to a gentle night stroll in the historic centre of Bourges, wrapped in a blue veil thanks to the lanterns that guide you along the route.

7 places to discover

The garden of the archdiocese : The Gallo-Roman ramparts

Bourges is a city surrounded by water, with 135 hectares of marshland now classified as natural heritage. In the 6th century BC, Avaric was a powerful princely state which traded with Celtic Europe and the Mediterranean. It later became Avaricum, a Gallo-Roman provincial capital. A royal city since 1100, Bourges became the capital of the Duke Jean de Berry from 1361. Its emblems are the swan, and especially the bear. It’s Ursine who will accompany you throughout your evening…

The Hotel Lallemant

In 1506, the Lallemant brothers, wealthy educated bourgeois, close to the royal court, had their mansion built. It precedes the great castles of the Loire Valley by more than 10 years. With multiple stylistic innovations, the artists have mixed Italian, Flemish and French influences.

 

 

The Estève Museum

Bourges has often been an intense cultural and artistic centre. It was here, during the 15th century, that Jean de Berry employed the greatest artists of the time. In the 16th century, Geoffroy Tory, a Berruyer typographer, invented the comma and the cedilla, while Jean Boucher, 70 years later, supported the artistic renewal. Since 1878, the School of Fine Arts (the current ENSA) allows students to continue to create ... But Bourges, during the 20th century, was the city of Marcel Bascoulard, the brilliant sketcher, and eccentric "tramp artist" and of Maurice Estève, who donated his works to the City.

 

The Jacques Cœur Palace : architectural masterpiece that heralds the Renaissance

In the 15th century, Jacques Cœur, who was born in Bourges, had very early trade relations with the Orient. Enriched by his business, ennobled by Charles VII who made him his Treasurer, he financed the reconquest of the kingdom weakened by the Hundred Years War. Arrested and tried in 1451, he escaped, dying on the island of Chios in 1456.

 

 

The Aubrun building

The sumptuous Aubrun Emporium is a perfect illustration of a local family’s rise to commercial success. Beginning as a modest boutique for grain sacks, it was gradually expanded, and in 1928 became the
grandest department store of the city. The architect Sylvère Laville deployed all of the latest techniques such as reinforced concrete to produce this Art Deco ode to commerce, with its streamlined, curvilinear style and its four grand staircases surrounding a central glass atrium which was sadly eliminated in 1956. These two buildings have received the label « remarkable cultural heritage of less then 100 years »

The post office building

Looks can sometimes be deceiving, as the flamboyantly decorated Bourges Post Office is actually quite a recent building. Inaugurated in 1926 by the architect Henri Tarlier, the edifice is a celebration of the town’s Gothic glories, the Palace of Jacques Coeur and the Alderman’s Hall (now the Museum of Maurice Esteve).The nearby square bears a statue of King Louis XI who was born in Bourges and who created the first postal service in France in 1464.

 

 

 

 

The Archbishop’s Palace

Bourges was famous in the 16th century for its law school. In the 19th century, the town’s renown came from its industries, such as the Mazières foundry, which contrinbuted to the building of Les Halles de Paris, and its military establishments, specializing in weapons and heavy artillery. La Belle Epoque in Bourges saw the advent of prestigious commercial ensigns, many of which still thrive today : Monin, La Forestine, Aubrun… In the 1930’s the aeronautics industry joined the city’s growing ranks of para-military enterprises, currently located at the entrance to town.
Excellence and innovation are also evident in other fiels of endeavor : in the cultural domain, with the creation of Le Printemps de Bourges music festival in 1977, and in the sporting porfession, with the Bourges women’s basketball team, 14 times national and three times European champions.
 

Practical information

Free circuit,
Every evening from 10pm until midnight in June and July, and from 9.30pm until midnight during August and September.
Blue atmosphere from nightfall until 1am.
The monuments (with the exception of the former archdiocese) are open for day visits. The latter houses the House of museums .

Les Nuits Lumière

Duration of show : about 2 km (1hr 30 min)

Car Parks: Place Séraucourt (free)
Parking for Buses: Avenue Eugène Brisson (near the Cathedral)