October 2, 2015
Day 73: Briare to Jargeau
Our hotel in Briare was at the marina at the edge of town, just where a canal crosses the Loire on a bridge - i.e. a "pont canal". This one was built in 1890, a time when people still took the trouble to decorate utilitarian things. So the pont canl was really lovely. It also had a dragon defending one end.
We had been really glad to learn that there would be a market in Briare this morning, so we headed directly to the centre of town. The market had all the necessary elements - trucks with cheese, fruits and vegetables, baking, and so forth. We arrived early, so there were few people around, though all the vendors were set up. It's not as exciting this way, but at least no problem in guiding our bikes around.
The baking lady had a good arrangement, with a gas oven working right at her stall. She was baking previously prepared or par baked items, but they were coming out very good. We gladly bought all we needed for breakfast and lunch from her.
A somewhat new development was the presence of a lot of Camembert at the cheese vendors. It all comes from Normandy, of course. Camembert is a controlled name and must come from its source region. Camembert tourism is big in Normandy, and we hope to join in to that one year, but for now we were glad to just buy the product.
Our guide book had alerted us about the church of St Etienne in Briare, which it said featured mosaic on its facade. What we found was really one fo rhe most unique and elegant churches that we have seen on the tour. It is not just the facade that is decorated with mosaic, but also many parts of the interior, including the floor. The floor features mosaic circles portraying 5 senses, and 4 elements (fire, water, earth, and air), all with swirling blue around, symbolizing the Loire.
The story is that in 1851 a tile factory was established here, by Jean Felix Baterosses. It became the major industry and doubled the town population. The idea of the church was to demonstrate the know how of the factory. It was an artistic concept too, based on the Loire and the canals.
The church was started in 1895, and took five years to complete. Bapterosses wanted it to be a local production, but glass workers had to be brought in from the (famous) glass island of Murano (near Venice) to train the local workers.
Bapterosses died before the church was completed, but his statue was erected in the church square. Significantly it faces the town, which was his main concern, rather than the church.
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We had chosen a nice nearby destination for today's ride, Jargeau, just 59 km away. But we spent a long (and well worth it) time in Briare, so we were behind the eight ball as we set off downriver. We responded to this by making sure to go into Gien. Gien fits my ideal for an accessible city on the Loire. It is built right on the shore, and has a stone bridge into the centre. There is no guessing about where the city is and how to get there.
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Gien (from our direction) marks the major beginning of Joan of Arc country. In fact, Gien actually claims to be Joan of Arc central, something that would no doubt be disputed by Orleans (or Rouen, or her birth village of Domremy). For a quick review, Joan of Arc was born in 1412. At the age of 13 she began hearing the voices of three saints. Eventually she got the word to help boot the English out of France - which was embroiled in the 100 Years War. Joan went to work to help ensure the crowning of Charles VII. Joan participated in breaking a siege of Orleans, and also fought the British up and down the Loire, logging victories at Jargeau, Meung sur Loire, Beaugency, and Patay. From Gien, she left with Charles for Reims, and saw him crowned there. Following that she fought some more battles, but got captured at Compiegne, not by English but by Bourguignons. Abandoned by Charles, she got sold to the English. Accused of heresy by the French, she was burned alive (obligingly, I presume, by the English?). Her ashes were thrown in the Seine, to avoid having a geographic focus for her memory. However she was later canonized and became St Joan.
With this history, we made our major stop in Gien the Saint Joan of Arc church. However, we could not track down this bit of history without running up against another, more recent, one. This is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gien, from the Second World War, and there are plaques all around town recalling the situation. For example, that stone bridge (built in 1484 and refurbished in 1734) we used to cross to Gien, was crossed in 1940 by over a million people fleeing the fall of Paris.
The city was bombed in 1940, and the church was almost completely destroyed. In July 1944 the city was bombed again, this time by the other side. Starting from 1950 there was rebuilding program, making use of a lot of red and black brick, in an effort to blend modern and traditional styles. With the church, it is easy to see where the rebuilding occurred, with only the bell tower having mostly survived.
An interesting feature of the church, not sure if it was in the original, was the capitals of the pillars, each of which portrays an element of the story of Joan of Arc.
Down in the town close to the river, we read several more of the 75th anniversary panels. One very interesting one was just near Rue Jeanne d'Arc. There were photos there showing the adjacent street and buildings before and after the bombardment. And there we were, looking at the same scene, 75-100 years later.
We recrossed the stone bridge, now having made rally no progress toward Jargeau, given that it was already past noon and we had gone about 13 kms. So now it was time to put our heads down and get on with it. We did look up, of course, as we entered Sully, which has a major chateau, directly on our route. We made no effort to go onto the chateau grounds or into the town, though.
From there we cycled on the dike, on small roads, in forests, all pushing on toward Jargeau. We had made a booking at one of the only hotels in town, le Cheval Blanc (55 euros). We felt good to have the booking, so there would be no question of where to go when we hit town. On the other hand, we passed a lot of nice possible wild camps along the Loire, and we could feel that it was going to be a warm night, so these would have worked.
The GPS took us into Jargeau, past modern but not traffic ridden or ugly suburbs. We pulled up to le Cheval Blanc without having really seen the old town, since the hotel is just on the edge. It was late, though, and we were more interested in getting into the room.
We have been taking a bit of note of the room size figures that are one of the features of Booking.com. For France, a good sized room seems to be 22 square meters. Our room tonight is 15. That means three feet clearance beyond the end of the bed, and about three feet on each side, plus a small bathroom. Some of the listings quote 10 or even 8 square meters. Gads. Oh well, I think our tent is 3, so this is still luxury.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 3,560 km (2,211 miles)
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