April 25, 2024
Day 79: Orleans
Shortly after our drive train overhauls in Nantes, my pedals locked up and would not turn, either direction. Some fiddling with the shifter got them going, but they locked up twice more within ten minutes. More fiddling, and it all worked! On that basis we continued up the Loire, rather than turning back to the bike shop in Nantes, to lose a day or more, have to find a hotel in Nantes, and so forth.
The drive worked flawlessly, until yesterday, when it did not exactly lock, but it did go crunch crunch, and start operating not in the selected gear. More fiddling with the shifter, and I was going again. That's where things stood as we parked our bikes at the hotel in Orleans. But reading Suzanne Gibson's blog, aside from her horrific bout with illness, showed how Janos' cycling had crunched to a halt with a rear hub failure whose symptoms mirror mine. So just after I write this, we are off to find a bike shop. We do not really expect action today, but it is prudent to try. After that, we'll see if we get stranded on the road to Paris.
By the time this blog page is published, and you read it, much more will be known. So you the reader are in a better position than I am right now. Too bad you can not send me a message from the future, so I'll know how this turns out.
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All the bike shops open at 10 a.m. , which is late in our terms. So we compulsively walked to the first two, just to know where they were and guess, by looking at their windows, if they understood Nexus hubs. That sounds silly, but we did decide this way that Velo Val de Loire did not look quite as serious as Cyclable. We walked around for a bit and then headed back to Cyclable. Another man had since shown up, and therefore was first in line. To pass the time, I asked him what his problem was, and why he had come to this shop. "Do they know what they are doing?" I inquired. The answer was that the man's bike was a Farradmanufactur - a German make - and not only had he bought his here, but that these guys were the German bike shop in town. That seemed good news, since my bike is German. Delving further into the man's reason for being here (we must have been really early!) I found that his brake's handle adjuster was no longer able to compensate for the pad wear. Aha, the poor soul, like me, had Magura hydraulic rim brakes. This is one of their notorious failings. I wished him luck as the doors opened and the (two of us) poured in.
The shop's answer to me was (a) what you expect from all mechanics when you can not demonstrate the fault you are worried about - if it's not broken, how do you expect me to fix it? and (b) No time today to take it apart, especially on spec. However they did send us to another bike shop (not Velo Val de Loire), who said on the phone they would look at it, but in person trotted out both reason (a) and (b) for not doing it.
So we dragged our sorry bike back to the hotel and went back to our original plan for the day, which was to visit the old town, the market, the cathedral, and the giant Joan of Arc statue. But one thing one of the mechanics said stuck with us - he would never go touring with a Nexus - too complicated. We agree with this. Our bikes, bought in Netherlands, were quite advanced for a flat land where the idea is to cycle to the bakery a couple of times a week. But the Alps, Pyrenees, Portugal, and endless kms, fully loaded - not so much.
We started our walk at the George V bridge. This was completed in 1760. The medieval period is generally considered to end at about 1450. So this is not a medieval bridge. But bridges have a hard life, so I would say 1760 is still pretty old.
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We went first to the covered market - Les Halles. At the entrance is a graphic of what this used to look like, but now it's a modern building.
I'll start with my usual "cornucopia" shot. There was no problem finding where to shoot this, but then almost any market looks grreat like this.
On the other hand, the market has wide aisle and is very clean and quiet. That should not be a demerit, since the products are great, but then one often looks for a lot of life, crowds, shouting, to give a market spirit.
Notwithstanding this silly quibble, have a look at some of the stuff:!
One of the items always found at French markets, and at home only of you grow your own, and at that it's not so easy, is the ultra thin green string bean. So I like to photograph them when I see them. In this case, like the lady in the photo, someone or more ladies were always standing in front of the beans when I tried for my shot. I finally had to go to Dodie, and in my usual way, ask her to go push the offenders out of the way, something she will never overtly do. So I gave her the camera and sent her after the shot. She waded in among the three old ladies blocking up my beans, blended right in, I thought, and came back with the shot. Right on!
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1 month ago
Gloating over this shot, I notice that they have written the country of origin for my French beans: Kenya. wtf?
The next area where I needed Dodie to weigh in was at the cheese counter (one of many!). They had this Tomme cheese with what looked to me like imbedded peppers, maybe. I asked for a slice, and the lady went for the wedge above. "No, no", said I, I am talking about the one below, with the enbedded - whatevers. "They are both the same", said the lady, and "No, they are not", said I. Again, a staring standoff between me and a French woman. Dodie had to step in "Yes, they are the same, but give the baby his cut from the bottom one and save the grief". It turned out, of course, they were the same, just that the cheeses have a coating of the whatever, on the outside. Does not really affect the flavour. I know. I tried licking it (later!).
Now here is one that Dodie could not resolve. I wondered between the two strawberry varieties, which would be the good one. I proposed buying one (berry) of each, but she apparently correctly observed that they were sold by the container, and those up to 8.50 euros each. Too costly for basic research! Now we may never know! (The smaller, darker ones look more like what we grow at home.) Someone like Keith Klein might recognize the variety names, though. Left is "Gariguette" , right is "Charlotte".
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In my youth, I picked strawberries every afternoon after school for what seemed like years, but was in reality only about a month. By the end of that time the mere thought of a strawberry would give me the heebee jeebees, and the smell was so off-putting I haven’t been able to face a strawberry since. So I’m afraid that I don’t have an answer for your question. Pardon me while I go get something to take my mind off that miserable « fruit ».
Cheers,
Keith
P.s. curiously, I didn’t have the same reaction to any of the other things I picked, raspberries, peaches, grapes, cherries, plums, asparagus, green beans, etc. thus I stayed employed through the summer and into the following school year.
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Kinda like weather forecasting?
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As we continued our walk, through old sections and toward the cathedral, we did not see any ultra narrow streets nor rows of crumbling ancient buildings. Rather we saw clean, quite wide streets, and some new and many non crumbling ancient buildings. When later combined with what I saw as the stunningly beautiful (and clean, non crumbling) cathedral interior, the gorgeous Jeanne d'Arc street, and the large (clean, colourful) Martroi Square, Orleans had won me over as a great place. Dodie, I will say, only rated it "OK", but I think this was coloured by being cold. We had optimistically put aside our warmest clothing, thinking we could never freeze in a city (in France, in late April)!
The form of French "fachwerk" - colombages - differs in style from the German, I think.
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We came out into the Place Ste Croix, with its cathedral standing at the head of Jeanne d'Arc street. The cathedral seems modelled on Notre Dame in Paris, with its two fairly short towers.
You can read the story of it, with us, on the nearby historical panels:
The panels also included one of those bizarre tales, similar to the Ste. Radegonde one yesterday. Might as well have a look at it:
Unlike with some cathedrals, there is not an overabundance of carvings on the outside. But there are a few:
We have been inside a lot of churches and cathedrals by now, and risk becoming "churched out". But Orleans cathedral really was special. It had the tall arches, of course, but also coupled this with colourful flags, and with colourful stained glass, particularly ten huge panels telling the story of Jeanne d'Arc. To this was also added colourful decoration of the columns, and very nice carving in the choir. The whole effect was rather gay, and not at all like some of the cold, gray, and plain, if huge, spaces we have been in.
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There are ten glass panels telling the story of Joan of Arc. In typically random fashion, I photographed #5, "Fighting When Needed", depicting battle on the bridge over the Loire, as Joan attempts to break the Seige of Orleans. She spent ten days here, April 29-May 8, 1429, staying at what is now called Joan of Arc House, and earning the title the Maid of Orleans. We have spent two days nearby and so far have earned nothing!
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And here, randomly, is Joan panel #6: "Thanks Be to God". The whole history of the Hundred Years War is of course very long, and even the Joan of Arc slice of it, which is towards the end, is complicated. We can pick up in 1422, when Charles VII declared himself king. At this time, British monarchs had lots of territories in France, and John, Duke of Bedford was governing some part on behalf of the infant Henry VI of England. Bedford decided to knock out Charles VII, and moved to take Orleans, as a base to attack Charles, south of the Loire. Orleans looked done for, except that 14 year old Joan got word from God that she should go and tip the scales. She went to see Charles (at Chinon) and got the OK to come back with a small army. In battles here, she the managed to dislodge Bedford. This really boosted the French, and a few years later they managed to totally expel the British. Joan continued in some other campaigns, but got captured, and was eventually tried and burned at the stake in Rouen in 1431.
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Jeanne d'Arc street, leading from the cathedral, looks great.
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A quick turn from Jeanne d'Arc street and you reach Place Martroi- a wide open space dominated by a famous Joan mounted statue.
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Dodie was chilled and was not really enjoying Orleans. I too was wishing I had brought more clothes on our walk. So we returned to our room, and put Dodie under a warm duvet for nap. When she woke up, she was ready for another crack at the town. And yes, now with residual warmth and not cold in her system, she saw the place in a different light, now finding it very attractive.
We began back at the market, not really to reevaluate what we had seen, but to find some food for tonight and tomorrow. In the meantime, I had looked up the strawberries, and found that Gariguettes are well regarded in France. So ok, we gave the a try, while still not buying each variety found at the market today. The produce man said they would be flavourful but not sweet, and we agree with this.
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If you look at the track that starts off this post, you see that our apparently drunken rambling forms something of a box. This results from places we were trying to get to, like the bike shops, the cathedral, Place Martroi, and home to the hotel. But the box actually encloses the old town, so to some extent we missed it by walking its perimeter. We fixed that now by cutting right through it. So the photos below can be said to be from old town Orleans. One thing we also wanted to fix was the haphazard coverage of the life of Joan of Arc stained glass panels at the cathedral, not to mention having not gone to the Joan of Arc chapel there. So we went back to the cathedral, but unfortunately found it closed. OK, next time.
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Nine years ago, when we were here, I was intrigued to find the Jeanne d'Arc bakery, but disappointed to find it closed, and it seemed like it could be out of business. Today I found it again, and it is still closed. Nine years is a long time to wait for something to open! Anyway, we can compare then and now:
THEN:
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Tomorrow we will leave La Loire and strike off toward Chartres. We'll miss this great river and its bike path!
Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 3,842 km (2,386 miles)
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We discussed putting a derailleur, but that implies a new wheel and shifter, plus the cassette and derailleur. From where I stand right now, I am considering buying a whole bike, like right here and now. It'll be a derailleur model!
1 month ago
Thanks for the tour of Orleans, a great city. I have one bike with a Nexus hub, my city bike. For getting bread and croissants at the boulangerie it works fine. For anything that involves climbing , I will only use one of my derailleur equipped bikes.
All the talk of Joan of Arc reminds me of a story.
Many years ago, when I had just taken up my first post at Hamlin University in St. Paul, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Bill Downing. Bill had been a liaison officer in the US navy assigned to the Free French cruiser Georges Leygues and like me he was a francophone /francophile. During his service he was at the Normandy landings, and was the officer in charge of giving the order to open fire which the French did ten minutes before the Americans, British, and Canadians. Anyway, one day when I was at work, I came upon a sign attached to the men’s restroom that read « Jeanne d’Arc », Bill’s way of letting us know the lights had gone in the w.c. (For those of you who do not speak French, Jeanne d’Arc is pronounced like John dark in English).
Cheers,
Keith
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