Orléans

J had two days off earlier this month for Toussaint (All Saints’ Day), so we took a short trip to Orléans.  This was perhaps not our most elaborately-planned trip; we decided to go after getting an email from the French train company advertising two-for-one fares and skimming a list of destinations within an hour of Paris.

Orléans is a city of about 125,000 people in the northern part of the Loire Valley.  It is about 80 miles south (and slightly west) of Paris.  Orléans might be best known as the site of a victory for the French (led by 17-year old Joan of Arc) over the English during the Hundred Years War.  Joan of Arc is one of the patron saints of France and she is known as the Maid of Orléans.  Walking around Orléans, you see signs of the city’s connection with Joan of Arc everywhere.  We saw streets named for her, statues of her, even a reconstruction of the house where she lived while defending Orléans (the original was destroyed in World War II).

Joan is Arc is memorialized in the Cathédrale Ste-Croix in the center of Orléans as much as she is across the rest of the city.  There are stained glass windows in the cathedral telling the story of her life and a giant tapestry depicting her hangs behind the altar.

We spent a relaxing few days in Orléans wandering through the medieval quarter of the city and along the banks of the Loire River.  

It did rain quite a bit, but we were able to stay dry visiting the cathedral, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, a cute wine bar, and (a first for us in France) a shopping mall.  The mall was adjacent to the train station and contained a huge Carrefour (a major French retailer) store.  We walked around marvelling at the giant store, which was similar to a Wal-Mart but was still distinctly French: the giant aisle of wine seemed to go on forever and prominently-placed refrigerated cases were full of discount duck and foie gras.