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Chambon-sur-Voueize and Mont-Dauphin have joined the ‘Most Beautiful Villages of France’!
On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June 2025, the Quality and Accreditation Committee of the ‘Plus Beaux Villages de France’ (France’s Most Beautiful Villages), meeting in Vézelay (Yonne), voted in favour of granting the status to Chambon-sur-Voueize (Creuse) and Mont-Dauphin (Hautes-Alpes). It also renewed the designation for 13 of the villages belonging to the national network, which now comprises 182 villages spread across 14 regions and 71 departments.
The first village in the Creuse!
On the borders of Berry, Limousin and Auvergne, Chambon-sur-Voueize is one of the jewels in the crown of the Creuse region’s heritage. In addition to the unmissable abbey church, founded between the 11th and 13th centuries, and its elegant Romanesque bridge over the Voueize (14th–15th centuries), the members of the Quality and Certification Committee for the ‘Most Beautiful Villages of France’ also appreciated the uniformity of the historic centre, with its low-slung houses featuring brown-tiled roofs, typical of this part of the Combraille region in the Marche area. Twenty-seven years after its first application for the designation, the town has finally seen its efforts rewarded and has given the Creuse department its first listed village!
The Vauban Alps and World Heritage Sites
Mont-Dauphin owes its creation to King Louis XIV: whilst searching for a defensive site on the southern border of the Alps, he entrusted his famous military architect, Vauban, with the task of establishing a stronghold on this high plateau in the Guillestrois region, perched at an altitude of 1,050 metres. Mont-Dauphin became one of the nine new towns created by the architect and one of the 11 sites listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the Vauban fortifications. Having lost its military function, the village now cultivates a gentle way of life, enhanced by the beauty of its natural heritage and the creative workshops that bring its colourful façades to life. These qualities are now recognised by the “Plus Beaux Villages de France” label.
Read the official press release.
