The person from whom we are renting our place in Chenonceau suggested that we visit the nearby city of Loches, which he described as being “the most important city in the world for a very short period of time.” During the period from the 13th to the 15th centuries, Loches was a walled “royal city” where the Valois kings were frequent residents. Constructed on a high outcropping of rock, the oldest parts of the city — the St. Ours church and the massive Donjon — date from the 10th century. A 35 minute drive from Chenonceau, we decided it made a good Saturday destination.
The day was cloudy, but aside from brief showers for about two hours, dry. We drove the “back way,” on narrow roads bisecting fields of bright green (new wheat) and bright yellow (mustard, which was being cultivated). Arriving in Loches we parked and hiked up the the old part of the city through the Port Royale. We started our visit at the St. Ours church, being the first thing we came to.
Inside was the tomb of Agnes Sorel, the mistress of Charles VII, laid out in the typical French “gisant” style, a detail of which is shown below.
We next visited the Logis Royal, built by Charles VII as a residence.
You can walk up the a splended viewpoint, overlooking Loches.
At this point it started to rain, and we decided we needed coffee, which fortified us for our trip to … the dungeon!
Located on the north end of the walled city, the Donjon comprises two connected buildings, the Tour Louis XI and the Donjon proper. Both were used as residences before eventually being used as prisons. As exhibited, the latter is emphasized, and the visit was creepy and sad, despite the splendid views from the top (lots of stairs), perhaps because of the cold, dampness, and rain. Man’s cruelty to man, it seems, runs deep back into history.
Now completely chilled, tired from going up and down about 20 – 30 flights of stairs on the day, we searched for and finally found (luckily, since it was 2:15 by this point and most places weren’t serving) a restaurant in the main part of the town, which seemed to us to be fairly prosperous (the town, not the restaurant) for a place mostly off the beaten path. Both of us had salads; I was hoping mine would be an antidote to the not-entirely-healthy meals of past week.
After lunch, we continued our journey into the hinterlands. Suzie had found a reference to a small town called Ferrière-Larçon where, it was said, you could take a small path behind the church and go on a trail past unlived-in troglodyte houses. We found the place, parked, and walked to the church.
Sure enough, we found the path and the strange abandoned troglodyte habitations.
Maybe because I was tired, or maybe because the little town had seemed utterly deserted, I started to have a bit of “Deliverance” feeling. We were in the middle of nowhere, we could be dispatched and would never be discovered. Time to drive back home, which we did, to finish the day.
As always, many more pictures didn’t make this post, but they are all available here:
Categories: Blogging