Orleans

Monday 12th August: Orleans

We had a long journey today to finish off our journey to
Orleans and the beginning of our tour of the Loire Valley. We arrived in Orleans about 2pm and were able to park by the riverside. The Loire was looking very full and flowing freely. We didn't think we would be able to put our canoe on the river here.

We had admired the city as we drove in: lots of elegant buildings in wide roads adorned with beautiful flower arrangements.

Mike was especially keen to find out about Joan of Arc - the Maid of Orleans. Our first visit was to the Cathedral Saint Croix where there were many lovely stained glass windows telling her story. From there we went to the 16th century Hotel de Ville also known as Hotel Groslot. here was one of the many scuptures of Joan of Arc and the Hotel contained some sumptious rooms which now seem to be largely used for civil weddings.

We followed the Joan of Arc town route which took us to other statues, her house when she lived here (rebuilt after the WW2 bombings) which is now a museum and the Church where she prayed before going into battle. It made a good focus to visit the city. Jacqui made a rare purchase en route and bought herself a black dress which may or may not be worn for Lou's graduation.

It was quite late in the day when we left and we went back to another McDs to catch up with this blog and then we travelled further west down the Loire to a lovely free aire at Lailly en Val.  The only down side was that the aire was adjacent to a churchyard and the hourly clock bells could be heard loudly.