Scenes from Loches

We’d been to Loches previously on the Wednesday’s market day. It consisted of the usual, food, wine, plants and clothes. The central older part of the town hosted the market and it felt familiar to us on this visit.

Loches, Montresor and Montpoupon are all close together and make a great day out.
Ensure you have lunch somewhere in Loches.

The market was well underway when we arrived at mid-morning.

Loches is not far south of Saint Aignan in the Touraine region. It’s an easy and picturesque drive from the banks of the Cher. You travel over rolling hills and through a few dark forests along the way. Either on the way or on the return drive you can stop at the smaller chateaux of Montresor and Montpoupon which we may post before we leave the region. We find that these smaller chateaux are kinder to the senses than the huge ones such as Chenonceau and Chambord.

Plants, food and clothing are all the part of the Loches market.

Now this is the sort of creative art you can appreciate. Come to think of it, there seems very little graffiti in France compared to Italy or maybe its just a large city thing! 

The name of the business just appealed to me - I wonder what business it is!

What we didn’t experience on the previous visit was the medieval Citadel -  and the royal residence of the King of France, Charles VII. Logis Royal. Here he also entertained his mistress, the La Dame de Beaute, Agnes Sorel. The nearby church is where she is buried and there is a alabaster effigy with angels beside her head. Its thought provoking that a King’s mistress should be given such a resting  place but there you go!!!!

Charlie's home away from home with Agnes in Loches

The effigy of Agnes Sorel with sheep at her feet.

And angels at her head.

The church where Agnes Sorel's effigy is close by the Chateau high overlooking Loches.
Many of the figures had almost a pagan look about them.

Carvings from the columns within the church.

The other woman in Charlie’s life was most definitely a saint - Jean d’Arc. Initially she met Charlie at Chinon despite that he had put one of his men in his robes to fool her, but Joanie didn’t fall for the masquerade. Convincing Charlie to give her an army to defeat the English at Orleans, she returned to Loches to implore the Dauphin to be crowned King of France. Her devotion to Charles was not returned as she was, in the end burnt at the stake with no intervention by Charles.

I have many photos of Jean d'Arc from our travels through France. The most dramatic is her on horseback in the square at Chinon where she first met Charles VII

Towards the end of our walk around the Citadel of Loches and back to the lower reaches of town, I noticed some very old photos of street scenes. It was after looking at the photos more closely and the street we were in, that I realised they were the same but with possibly with over a100 year gap.

After descending from the Citadel of Loches, we were in time for lunch. As we returned to the area where the market was, it was deserted and pristine by 2.00 pm as if it never existed. It was time to leave Loches for the supermarche, and home to feed our host’s cats.