Montrichard

For the Napoleonic French general, see Joseph Hélie Désiré Perruquet de Montrichard.

Montrichard
Part of Montrichard Val de Cher
The Cher River at Montrichard
Coat of arms
Location of Montrichard
Montrichard Show map of France Montrichard Show map of Centre-Val de Loire
Coordinates: 47°20′37″N 1°11′03″E
Country	France
Region	Centre-Val de Loire
Department	Loir-et-Cher
Arrondissement	Blois
Canton	Montrichard Val de Cher
Commune	Montrichard Val de Cher
Area ^1	14.36 km^2 (5.54 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[1]	3,048
• Density	210/km^2 (550/sq mi)
Demonym	Montrichardais(e)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal code	41400
Elevation	59–134 m (194–440 ft) (avg. 68 m or 223 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km^2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Montrichard (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃tʁiʃaʁ]) is a town and former commune in the Loir-et-Cher department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.[2] On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Montrichard Val de Cher.[3]

During the French Revolution, the commune was known as Montégalité.[2]

Geography

The town lies on the north bank of the river Cher. 32 kilometres (20 mi) south of Blois, 73 kilometres (45 mi) west of Vierzon and 42 kilometres (26 mi) east of Tours. The countryside is mainly constituted of vineyard, woods, cattle and cereals.

Sites and monuments

• Château de Montrichard, a mediaeval castle.
• Nanteuil Church (12th, 13th, 15th centuries), whose statue of the Virgin Mary is the object of a very ancient pilgrimage on Whit Monday.
• Church of the Holy Cross (Église Ste-Croix) has a fine Romanesque doorway and was the site of Joan of France's marriage to the future king.
• Château de Pont-Cher, a 15th-century home built into the cliff, containing the René Galloux collection of prehistoric and Gallo-Roman artefacts from excavations in the Cher valley.[4]

Pronunciation

Montrichard is pronounced French pronunciation: [mɔ̃tʁiʃaʁ], with a T sound, despite its silence in the word mont and similar place names such as Montréal. One of the explanations that may justify the pronunciation of the T is that Montrichard is derived from the words mont (mountain, hill), tri (for three) and chard (square), because the town is situated on a hill surrounded on three sides by square towers.[5]

Notable people

• Joan of France, Duchess of Berry, married the future king of France Louis XII in Montrichard, though the marriage was later annulled.
• André Alerme, a French actor who appeared in more than 70 films, died here in 1960.
• Paulette Abagnale,^[citation needed] mother of Frank Abagnale, confidence trickster
• Gaétan Cathelineau, painter of portraits and of historical and genre subjects.[6]
• Eugénie Luce, French educator who lived and worked in Algiers, died in Montrichard in 1882.[7]

Popular culture

The town is mentioned in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, as the town from which the mother of Frank Abagnale came. Later in the film, Abagnale has set up a high-end printing facility for printing corporate cheques in Montrichard when he is tracked down and arrested by the FBI. The exterior shots of the town, however, were filmed in the Place Royale in the lower town of Quebec City, Canada, which is identifiable by the presence of the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church.[8]

References

1. "Populations de référence 2022" [Reference populations 2022] (PDF) (in French). INSEE. December 2024.
2. Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Montrichard, EHESS (in French).
3. Arrêté préfectoral 2 December 2015
4. Châteaux of the Loire p76 Michelin Tyre Co Ltd 1977 ISBN 2-06-013210-X
5. Webpage Archived 2016-09-12 at the Wayback Machine (in French) explaining the city name "Montrichard".
6. Bryan, Michael (1886). "Cathelineau, Gaëtan". Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I.
7. "Luce Ben Aben School of Arab Embroidery I, Algiers, Algeria". World Digital Library. 1899. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
8. Dutta, Nishitha (August 30, 2022). "Catch Me If You Can: Where Was the 2002 Movie Filmed?". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved August 17, 2024.