Orléans is best known for its role during the 100 Years War between England and France, when Joan of Arc helped break the siege the English had on the city after being given direction/inspiration from God. I've always had a bit of a fascination with Joan of Arc, and the town is close to Paris, so it was an obvious choice. It's pretty clear walking around the town that they don't have too many other claims to fame. There is a Joan of Arc street, square, shopping mall, and a good number of hotels, restaurants and shops named after her. The town is a decent size, over 100,000 people, but it seemed extremely quiet when I was there. It must pick up more on weekends, but the streets were mostly empty and a good number of the shops were closed. I went by the main square - which of course has a big Joan of Arc statue, and went to the Cathedrale Ste-Croix. The cathedral was finished in 1329, and is now sort of dedicated to Joan with her as its saint. Her story is told in the stained glass windows, but even with the Joan connection aside these old gothic cathedrals all have pretty impressive architecture.
Before leaving town I stopped at a bakery for a quick lunch, and when I saw they had Baguette Canadien I decided to try that out to find out why exactly it was a Canadian sandwhich. It turned out to just be a baguette filled with a lot of cheese, some chicken, and a few pieces of green pepper, so I still have no idea why it was Canadian.
Next it was onto Blois. Prior to yesterday I knew absolutely nothing about Blois, but when I was hunting for interesting things to do in nearby towns I learned of its Robert-Houdin House of Magic. Eugene Robert-Houdin was one of the fathers of modern magic/illusion (Harry Houdini's name was based on his name in honour), but he was also a watchmaker, engineer and inventor. His success with magic was largely based on his ability to construct cutting edge equipment for illusions. The building itself was divided into different sections ranging from optical illusions to marionettes to magician props. A lot of it was more geared towards kids, but they thankfully had all the history stuff posted in English as well, which was very interesting. It was cheap admission and included a 30 minute magic show in their theatre, so overall a fun time out. It also had mechanical dragons that burst through the windows thrashing about and snorting smoke every hour for a few minutes, which gives a bit of a kick to the quiet cobblestone square its in.
Blois also had some nice parks and small gardens set up. The park had a really nice statue of Diane that I had never seen before. Diane/Artemis is probably my favourite of the Roman/Greek pantheon, and I'm pretty familiar with all the major statues/sculptures of her, but this one wasn't a classical one but one designed in the 1950s, and a much different style than I'm used to.
In both towns the ratio of english speakers was down a lot from Paris, so my french got a good workout. It is pretty amazing how fast things come back to you and improve when you have a bit of stimulation. Now it's time to leave France and let it all erode again. Quite a bit of time on the train tomorrow as I head east through France and into the Alps. Hopefully there is some nice scenery along the way and it won't all just be going through forests or something.
1 comment:
I wondered about the Canadien baguettes my first time in France. Was it cheese or a mayonnaise type thing from what I remember. The key was the chicken I think for some reason.
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