Champagne berrichonne, Natural region on a limestone plateau in Cher and Indre, France

Champagne berrichonne is an agricultural region spanning the departments of Cher and Indre in central France, characterized by open fields, wooded areas, and waterways. The landscape includes scattered villages with traditional stone buildings that form the social centers of this rural area.

Since Gallo-Roman times the Champagne berrichonne has been a land of large agricultural estates, with modest smallholders' houses grouped in hamlets along the roads. Until the mid-19th century sheep heaths, ploughed land and fallow shared the open spaces, with vines on the best-exposed slopes. Phylloxera destroyed the vineyards at the end of the 19th century and the collapse of wool prices and anthrax outbreaks ruined sheep farming, pushing farmers towards cereal monoculture. Woodland clearance accelerated from the 1960s.

The name Champagne here refers not to sparkling wine but to the open limestone plain, from Latin campania. The green lentil of Berry, grown in these fields, holds a protected designation, and the Reuilly vineyards on the region's slopes produce an AOC wine. The Valençay goat cheese is also made on farms within the area.

Villages sit mainly in the river valleys, where soils are deep and water available, while large farms stand apart on the open plateau; expect few services, as shops and amenities have declined with the population. The Cher and Indre and their secondary rivers cross the plain, but many have been dredged, dammed and lined with poplars. The 185 communes cover 4,496 km², so plan for long distances between stops.

The European beaver returned to the banks of the Indre between Fléré-la-Rivière and Mers-sur-Indre after the species gained protected status in 1968 and was later reintroduced by humans. The wooded mardelles, small clay depressions of karstic origin, dot the plateau and are easy to overlook.