Orléans definitely defied my imagination.
Where is the famous mediaeval city which was rescued from a siege by Joan of Arc – Jeanne d’Arc? I was expecting the city to be filled with half-timbered houses, cobbled narrow streets and stone walls (a little like Stratford upon Avon?). But I was confronted with this…
One thing I was concerned the most while planning the road trip was locations of our hotels and car parks. As I mentioned in the previous posts, my mom couldn’t walk too far and therefore the distance between them had to be as short as possible and they also needed to be close to each other and also they were situated in the city centres.
Until we drove up to the entrance of our hotel in Orlean, I didn’t realise how busy the traffic around it was. I managed to located an entrance to the hotel but the cars were right behind ours and it was impossible to let mum alight so she could be spared from walking from an underground car park nearby. The streets leading to the car park were one way and as a result, I ended up driving around more than a few times until I found the right approach.
After checked in the hotel, we decided to walked towards the old city centre. Over a large square with a large statue of Jeanne d’Arc, we reached to the area with old-fashioned houses. And one of the building was where Joan rested after she liberated the city.
The house was already closed when we arrived so we headed to the cathedral.
Under the bright sun, the grand avenue leading up to the cathedral was strangely empty – where are all the cars? We wondered.
There were some shops along the avenue but they were more like gift shops catering for tourists rather than the locals.
Outside the cathedral, an electric mini train was parked. We had been on one of those when we visited Strasbourg and decided to ride it after having ice cream at a nearby cafe.
We climbed into one of the carriages and noticed that there weren’t many passengers.
One of the many charms of old European cities has to be those “petit trains”. They are so tourist-friendly, especially for people with limited mobility, and also very cute to behold. Who wouldn’t like this sweet train?
The ride became more comfortable as the vehicle left a cobbled square in front of the cathedral. One short coming of the train was the seating and also the suspension. We experienced the worst when we rode a petite train at Versailles…
The train threaded through the city centre. After passing the main square, it drove along the famous mediaeval streets, showing us the half-timbered buildings and then reached to the river front which was inhabited with more modern facilities, such as an art centre and a shopping complex.
Ahhhh, Monoprix! One definite shortcoming of using the petit train was it did not allow us to “hop on & off”! There were a few places along the route where we just wanted to alight and visit. And we were also thirsty and peckish as the journey was getting slow, it was almost crawling one stage, due to a traffic jam.
After the tour, we walked back towards the hotel. It was a warm June day and the square was bathed in the golden afternoon sunshine.
Such a grand and gorgeous square!
It was a glorious afternoon!
I can’t remember if we went back to the hotel before we came out for dinner that evening. Maybe mum wanted to rest a bit and I went out on my own to take those pictures of the square. I also remembered visiting a shoe shop and tried on a pair of platform sandals. It might have happened next day before we left the city though…
For dinner, we opted for a Mexican restaurant which was very close to our hotel.
It was a warm evening and we decided to dine in an alfresco style.
We ordered a plate of nachos and onion rings. Mum said that she never had Mexican in her life and she loved it. Doesn’t it go very well with your beer, mum?
twist & turn 