2023 - La Loire à Vélo: Day 24: Fri 16 Jun

13-33degC, fine and sunny in the morning with little to no breeze, partly cloudy in the afternoon

Walk: 14km; total: 194km

Breakfast didn’t start until 7am, so we could sleep in again. After breakfast we set out on foot to the tourist info centre that is in a square with yet another Joan of Arc statue. Armed with a tourist map we set off to visit the Church of Saint Paterne, Saint Croix Cathedral, Hotel Groslot, the old town (really old), more gardens, and Halles Châtelet (indoor fresh food market). In between visits we had mornos at Starbucks, the only place that served decaf coffee, and lunch at Maccas. 14km later we were back at the hotel for a little rest.

Saint Paterne church was nothing to look at from the outside but the inside was awesome. It was rebuilt in the 19th century using the model of the 13th century churches. It is sometimes described as being massive and cold.

Joan of Arc has at least three statues here in Orleans, probably due to the fact that the people of Orleans have a soft spot for her as this was where she liberated the city from a British siege.

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross of Orleans is a Roman Catholic Church, built between 1278 and 1329. It was partially destroyed in 1568, and rebuilt between 1601 and 1829. Many of the stained-glass windows depict scenes of Joan of Arc in her quest to liberate the city. It is actually massive and if you were to stop and look at everything, you would need a very long time. Just sitting and admiring the stained-glass windows was calming.

Hotel Groslot was a non-event as it is now closed to visitors. It does look good from the outside though. It was built in the mid 1500s, and was first a mansion, then the City Hall of Orleans and now hosts wedding receptions, probably very nice ones! The building is watched over by a large bronze statue of Joan of Arc.

The old town is really old, founded in 50BC by Julius Caesar (over 2000 years ago)! The cobbles streets are well worn in places, and some of the buildings have a perceived lean. This is where the majority of the restaurants are, and almost every second doorway is a restaurant with many cuisines (not Australia though) represented - India, Thailand, Italy, Korean, Japanese, French, Mexican, to name a few.

We made our way down to the river and there was some kind of festival happening that may have had something to do with climate change, we think. We ambled along for a while until we reached the indoor fresh food market where we strolled through, drooling over all the lovely fresh food. We would have had to visit three to four different stalls to buy stuff to make lunch, so we opted for a chicken wrap at Maccas that are much better than the wraps at home.

After our rest, Greg went in search of a bike shop as he needed a new rear tyre. About 3km up the road he found a shop and was able to buy a tyre. He changed it over upon returning and now has a new Schwalbe Marathon Plus touring tyre for about the same price as at home. The old tyre was bought in 2017 and had developed a slight bulge, although it still had plenty of wear left in it. Better to be safe than sorry.

We had dinner at Yoyoshi, the little Japanese restaurant around the corner from the hotel and for €35 we both came out looking like big fat ticks. Each main meal comes with a soup (clear broth with a few bits of tofu, sliver of mushroom, and seaweed), salad (white cabbage with a vinegar sauce), and white rice. Wendy had four chicken spring rolls and five meat kebab sticks (the spring rolls would have been sufficient) and Greg had sashimi and sushi and five meat kebab sticks. We had to take short stroll around a bigger block to settle the tummies before getting home.

Bonsoir et bon nuit.