InTouch Travel

La Petite Marche is the sort of village that the French think of when they talk about "La France Profonde"…Deep France, Back-Country France, the French Heartland. It's not one of those storybook picturesque villages gussied up for tourists with sleeping dogs and charming cafes, but a small, honest, hard-working cluster of farms and families. About 15 minutes away, there's a fair-size town, Montluçon (population 50,000, the regional capital, or préfecture), and that's where you catch the train or pick up the autoroute to Paris, another 200 miles away.

So it is any wonder that Anne Marie felt she had to "leave town" to get an education? At the age of 14, she decamped to the French Alps and entered hotel school; she started to travel widely and eventually founded her own hotel-marketing company. But it's probably no surprise, for anyone who grew up in a small town that she returned.

"I wanted my son to live in a quiet place with less contamination, less violence, more security, more personal contact with neighbors. We've been living here for five years now and I must say there is no other place like it," Anne Marie writes.

Of course, there's more to the story. Her company represents French hotel properties to travelers from three continents. For the most part, they're boutique hotels without a marketing staff of their own. And she markets all over the world. "So I'll be home one day, cooking dinner for the family with vegetables from my mom's garden or out playing cards with friends here in La Petite Marche, and on my way to Singapore the next."

UP CLOSE WITH ANNE MARIE AUCOUTURIER

TRADITIONAL FRENCH LIFE

As a host, Anne Marie enjoys showing guests the traditional French way of life: visiting her brother's farm, going for dinner at another local farm that raises geese for foie gras, or just driving around and enjoying the landscapes.

"I try to make my guests feel and understand that first of all, there are still authentic parts of France, and that authenticity and high quality of life are not necessarily expensive.

If you come to the Auvergne to visit, you'll probably want to stay in Montluçon, where there's a comfortable hotel. And don't let the remote location fool you: assuming you don't get snowed in (like Anne Marie's Mexican visitors did last year!), there's plenty to keep you busy.

"We're off the beaten path, true, but not completely off the map," Anne Marie reports. "We're one hour away from the spa at Vichy, one hour from the industrial center of Clermont- Ferrand, one hour from the Parc Naturel des Volcans d'Auvergne (a spectacular stretch of grassy volcanoes), one hour from Limoges and its world-famous porcelain factories, not to mention Aubusson and its tapestries, the forests of Tronçais, the cathedral at Bourges and so on."

There's no fixed schedule, no opera-house curtain times, so you can slow down. Way down. And see a side of France that the vast majority of tourists don't even know exists.

"I loved spending time with you, Anne Marie! I returned to Japan telling everyone that I'd been to the most 'organic' place I had ever seen!"

— Tashi Myaki, Tokyo

"A country's heritage is preserved in its national monuments, but its character lives in the spirit of its small towns. For whatever it's worth, I think Anne Marie's found it."

— Noella Parsons, Broadmoor, Colo.

"We came in January when there was three feet of snow on the ground. They closed the road for a week! We were freezing, but we did learn to ski. And we wanted to stay longer!!"

— Jose Martinez, Mexico City