RV adventure travel

A Day and Night in Orleans France, City of Joan of Arc

Well I caught the train to Orleans France from Paris. It took a bit of research , but I found that the train departs out of Paris from the Gare d’ Austerlitz station. I was learning a few words of French every few hours.  These would come in handy in Orleans. The train took me through the lovely French country side, and it and took 1-2 hours to arrive in Orleans with the few little stops it made. I hoped off in Orleans and I knew immediately that I was in the right place. As , sure enough, even the train station and the mall had “de Arc” in their names.

From Orleans France

Yes, Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans.

Orleans takes lovely  Joan of Arc to heart. Orleans is a beautiful and ancient city in the Loire Valley. And it was my Love of the great stories and Legends associated with the Maid of Orleans that brought me to this town in France. I wandered down the street and was immediately greeted by the Maid.

There she was mounted on her war horse in her armor. A nice bronze statue of her stood in the square. The statue featured relief carvings that illustrated the life of the Maiden. I viewed them all, and they even included the faerie tree of Domremy. Orleans was touristy enough to be welcoming , yet , it was nothing like the tourist trodden streets of Paris.

This place had another kind of  beauty all together.  I went scouting for a cheap place to stay and found the Orleans tourist office.  There they suggested the Charles Sangler Inn after I told em my sad budget. I found it, It had rooms and the proprietor did not speak any English. Yet, he was extremely kind, welcoming and understanding. I used my 37 word French vocabulary I had picked up from my dictionary and some practice in Paris to secure my room. I bought a cheap but nice nights stay in the affordable inn. The room had a shower, a WC, and even a TV.  I felt up town with that after hostels.  I stashed my bags and went running amuck in Orleans. I wandered straight to the lovely Cathedral of Saint Croix.

From Orleans France

And the lovely and magical place is holy indeed for a lover of Joan of Arc. The cathedral features stained glass windows that tell the life story of the Maid of Orleans. Also I saw the maid and a little shrine featuring Saint Joan of Arc with a caring tribute to the fighters of World War Two. I wandered some more outside and saw that military vehicles had parked around the maid in the square. Yes, I thought, soldiers are still flocking to the Maiden. Apparently a ranking official was having some sort of celebration in Orleans that evening.

I jumped on the little train cart that was the local tourist ride.

It was affordable, and it took me around showing me the ancient taverns and medieval homes, the parts and places of old and even older. Places where the maiden prayed and worshiped. I felt real silly in the little train. It was sort of like a kiddy ride at a park. Locals would smile and say. Bon Voyage.

From Orleans Franc

I of course giggled. The little train ride had given me the necessary barrings I needed to do a more in depth walking tour. I now knew where to go and some things to go check out. I had scheduled only a day here and one nights stay in Orleans. A choice I regretted as I dearly loved the little town. Yet, my round trip return ticket left out of Paris soon.  Orleans had some really nifty sounding day trips out of her as well.

Orleans had a real fancy street car for getting around. Cute stores and tons of Joan of Arc history.

I recommend the lovely town, to anyone who loves the Joan of Arc stories as I do.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 1999 at 12:00 am and is filed under France, orleans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.