The leaders of regional France sought local solutions to their nation’s Inter-War identity crisis. In Burgundy, regionalists collaborated to promote a cultural “revival” that could stimulate regional pride, appease socio-political anxieties, and stimulate economic trade, The success of this ‘identity project’ depended on its implementation as a cultural phenomenon liable to economic exploitation and modern marketing strategies. To this end, provincial intellectuals and notables in Burgundy formed erudite associations and contributed to regional journals in order to promote “an ideal representation of local cultural life. “ Collectively, they invented an aesthetic, nostalgic, and regionally anchored cultural agenda that was marketed to diverse audiences in such a way as to overcome vested local interests. Depictions of romanticized vignerons – literary and graphic – were calculated to authenticate Burgundian folkways as the natural and historical symbiosis between the region’s landscape and people. This paradigm promoted a modernized view of regional strengths while countering a competing discourse in which rural practices symbolized a rustic and retarding influence on the modern French national agenda. In the case of Burgundy, this regionalist discourse linked evolving rural traditions; decentralized and economic regionalism; and conservative cultural mores to a paradigm of French identity founded on republican political principles and modern industrial practices. The elements of this idyllic society were calculated to function as polemic interventions into contemporary debates concerning French heritage, participatory politics, social order, and sustainable economic development from a regionalist perspective.