Environment

Spread over 14 hectares of meadows and woods, La Caille is nestled in the heart of the Bocage Bourbonnais in Allier. The land straddles the two communes of Autry-Issards and Saint-Menoux, two charming villages each a league away (about four km or an hour’s walk, not crazy about the old ones!) From La Caille, all like the medieval Bourbon-L’Archambault, spa town and cradle of the last dynasty of the kings of France… Beautiful hikes in perspective!

Suffice to say that the green landscape dotted with white spots, Charolais cows, has been shaped by man for a long time. To the delight of its inhabitants, but also of the flora and fauna, the hedged farmland has kept here a human size (always to defend!), Made of a mesh of hedges, small streams and hollow paths which forge links between places and between people.

This is how, on a smaller scale, La Caille fits into a fairly remarkable micro-territory, known as “la Mhotte”, which emerged in the momentum generated by the opening of the School Steiner-Waldorf de la Mhotte in the early 1980s. Families from diverse and often distant backgrounds settled and built various projects in the wake of the school: the Béguets Biodynamic Farm, the Foyer Michaël center training based on anthroposophy, the Ferme de la Mhotte multiforme with its biodynamic market gardeners too, its organic store / bar L’Échoppe, its resourcery and even its free shop, its houses, to name a few. All walkable! A territory that is betting on a joyful countryside, going beyond the false dichotomy of a joyous / sad country, notably by revitalizing the idea of the commons.