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. 

It's not JUST about the bike

With apologies to Mr Armstrong, I decided to subtitle my usual Blog "It's not JUST the bike". For the next 3 weeks Sue and I are in France for my 60th birthday. Although I have my new fixie with me this time, the blog will not be JUST about the bike but the food, wine, sights of the Loire and 2 weeks in Paris.

There will however be an insight to surviving Paris on a straight gear fixie and possibly some stories on training at the Paris Velodrome or in the parks of Paris with the Roadies.
What's a fixie I hear you say - It's a bike without gears, yes just one gear for all terrains and the pedals keep turning - no coasting at all. In Paris it is perfect. As for Mt Ventoux, forget it.

This is our fourth trip to France since 2006 and although our usual blog is Melbourne Our Home, France has become our other home in a way. We've met people who have become long distance friends, two who are cyclists, others being Bloggers or people we have met by renting their cottages or apartments.

On our first trip to Paris we stayed in the Sorbonne district on the west bank. Just up from our hotel on Rue Gay Lussac near the Luxembourg Gardens was this little cafe bar where we would enjoy a glass of cool refreshing ale in the sunny autumn afternoon. Since then we have experienced their spring twice and again this fourth trip we are hoping that France's harsh winter will give way to some sunshine.

Ours is the "slow travel" method where we can park ourselves for a week at a time and enjoy the sights and meet the people of the region.

On our last to visits to France, I've taken my straight gear bike, the one I rode in the Warrnambool road race in the early 80s. It also gives me an opportunity to discover the villages and country lanes on the bike. I call this training but in reality is just pure relaxing enjoyment.

From what I can tell of Europe's long cold winter I'll need to pack the winter training gear.

We promise you regular and almost daily sights, scenes and experiences from Paris over the 3 week period.

You'll notice on our Blog sight in the side bar, a section called "Followers". You need to register or post a comment as anonymous. we would really like to hear from readers while we are away.

Where is the Paris traffic???

Oh no, I'm late.

For those that log in on a Monday, I apologise for my non-blog Monday. Life is hectic with trying to get all things work, home and family in order before we fly out for Paris next Monday.
I must admit though that our Sunday arvo was very relaxing after mowing lawns. We decided to enjoy a balmy early autumn arvo with a bottle of Sav/Blanc on the deck and enjoy the backyard. It was a low 30s day with the sound of the occasional light plane flying overhead and doves cooing in the Gum Tree.

Do you know how difficult is is to capture a photograph of a plane (in focus) after a bottle of Sav/Blanc? But didn't the Gum Tree come up well?

We live near an airport for light planes. Both Sue and our oldest son Andrew have enjoyed flights in a Tiger Moth over Port Phillip Bay.

Not for me, I get nose bleed on the ladder.

The grass is turning green again after recent rains and the Jacaranda offers a filtering of afternoon sun, almost like an umbrella.

Gem enjoys the autumn sun.

But the Dove enjoys the sunlight from the safety of the Gum Tree branches with Gem below.

The cats, especially Gem, our Burmese suns herself on the outdoor setting as if she is royalty. (I thought I was, she said).....

I've built a new bike to bring to France for this trip and I'm looking forward to the thrill of playing in the traffic, but before that, we visit friends in the Loire. Firstly a night in Paris to get over 20 plus hours of movies, iPod and airline food - gosh I hope they upgrade us again. Sue, tell them it's my birthday - it worked for you last year.
We then TGV it to Tours and another overnight stay before picking up some sort of Mr Bean minicar and toodling down to the Cher. A few days catching up with people and then settling into a Paris apartment for two weeks. How good is that?

The new bike for this year's trip to France - a simple single gear in matt black. Sue has nick named it, "the Shadow". Are there any other thoughts out there?????

We maybe might just have another Funky Friday and a weekend blog before we fly out Monday.