I got up early to see the Chateau de Sully-sur-Loire, first driving through Germigny-des-Pres. Very moody and misty. This village is home to one of France’s unique treasures, the Carolingian Oratory, dating back to 806, one of France’s oldest churches. It’s renowned for its exceptional mosaic, which adorns the semi-dome vault, comprising 130,000 pieces of gold, silver, glass and stone.

Fleury Abbey at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, founded in 640 is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St Benoit, which are considered important objects of pilgrimage for believers.

Chateau de Sully-sur-Loire has a pointed-arch framework, a petit chateau and keep and an important character is attached to its history, Maximillen de Bethune, the Duke of Sully (the first Minister and good friend of Henry IV, who bought the castle in 1606). The building had 2 main functions – defence, with the presence of moats, drawbridges, rampart walk, arrow slits …protecting the river crossing on the Loire which allowed exchanges between Paris and the rest of the country. It also needed to ‘impress’/’make a statement’ – to demonstrate the lord’s power. Maximillen ordered the construction of the artillery tower to strengthen the ‘townside’ of the castle, and 3 passageways to connect the different parts of the site and filled the moats with water. Genius! 

When I got back to Orleans that morning, Terry, John and I walked a bit around Orleans. We loved Hotel Groslot with its delightful garden, which has housed the town council since the Revolution, but it was once the ‘King’s guesthouse’. Then past the Cathedral Sainte-Croix with the statue of a person carrying a sheep (a ‘nod’ to Joan of Arc, ex-shepherdess I thought), to the Musee des Beaux Arts – what a collection! 

Portraits of jaunty gents; a post modernist interpretation of the Battle for Orleans (above); ivory sculptures; porcelain plates; cherubs; still life of beautiful flowers; limbless Renaissance heroines going into battle …..so much to absorb.

Next to Beaugency, a quiet town located in the ‘valley of kings’, on the Loire river, between Orleans and Blois. The most important event in the turbulent history of the town was the battle of Beaugency , a series of battles led by Joan of Arc in 1429, in which the region was captured from the English. This was an important victory because at the time, the town controlled the only river crossing in the region. Allied forces blew up both sides of the town’s 13thC medieval bridge (26 stone arches) in WW2, to stop the Nazis crossing over. Originally, the town’s wealth developed around the bridge as the town charged a toll to those who crossed over, overseen by the Caesar Tower.

We arrived at our AirB&B in Cellettes in the early evening (cute cottage in the midst of farming country), having a late dinner and retiring well-tired.