The Ain is the department of the Dombes, the Bresse and the Bugey, a region of contrasts between the thousand ponds of the Dombes — a paradise for migratory birds —, the agricultural plains of the Bresse, and the foothills of the Jura and the Alps. This department in eastern France, long situated on the fringes of the great medieval principalities, boasts a richly diverse heritage of castles that bears witness to its history at the crossroads of Savoyard, Burgundian and Dauphiné influences.
Bourg-en-Bresse, its capital, is famous for its Bresse chicken — France’s only poultry with AOC status — and for the Royal Abbey of Brou, a masterpiece of late Flamboyant Gothic architecture built by Margaret of Austria in memory of her husband, Philip of Savoy. Pérouges, a fortified medieval town whose cobbled streets and half-timbered houses have served as the backdrop for numerous historical films, is listed among the most beautiful villages in France.
The châteaux of the Ain — Ambronay, Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne, Pont-d'Ain, Montluel — bear witness to the complex history of a territory contested between the Counts of Savoy, the Dauphins of Viennois and the Dukes of Burgundy before its annexation to France in 1601 by the Treaty of Lyon.