Moulins and the Val d'Allier: Terns on the Sandbanks and the Moulins Triptych

Required Activities

• Walk the bank of the Allier inside the Val d'Allier national nature reserve, the 1,450 hectares that run about twenty kilometres upstream of Moulins from Bressolles towards Chatel-de-Neuvre, and find three of the birds that nest on its bare gravel: little tern, common tern and little ringed plover, with sand martins in the holes of the eroding bank — this is one of the few rivers left in Europe still free to shift its own bed

• In Moulins cathedral, find the full-size facsimile standing in for the Triptych of the Virgin in Glory while the original is restored and on loan, and pick out on it Duke Pierre II of Bourbon kneeling with Saint Peter, tiara and keys, on the left panel, and Anne de Beaujeu with their daughter Suzanne under Saint Anne on the right

• Go round the Centre national du costume et de la scène in the old Villars cavalry barracks at Moulins, where 10,000 stage costumes deposited by the Paris Opera, the Comédie-Française and the Bibliothèque nationale are held, find the permanent Nureyev collection, and go on into La Scène, the wing opened in 2023 on how stage sets are designed and built

• Wait on the place du Jacquemart in Moulins for the hour to strike and watch the two 'parent' automata beat the great bourdon, 1.90 m across, then the two 'children' take the quarters on the small bells; climb the 45 m tower afterwards for the view over the town