Mars 2006 (1)

March 1, 2006 — 17 years ago today. We spent most of that day in Blois. A woman we had recently met had sold her house out in the country south of Saint-Aignan and bought an apartment in Blois, where she wanted to live. She was from the Paris region originally, and wanted to be closer to the train station in Blois so that she could travel back and forth to Paris easily. She had invited us to lunch. I think she was lonely out in the country. Her grandchildren were growing up and didn't come to visit as often as before.

Visually, it was a spectacular day. That's the centre-ville on the left above. The city's cathedral rises up out of the town and dominates the skyline. Much of the center of Blois was heavily damaged during World War II. It was rebuilt after the war looks, I think, the way it did before. The city spans the Loire and a beautiful bridge links its two halves.

Blois is an old royal town. French kings and their courts lived here in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The buildings in this photo are an old convent on the banks of the river that is now home to a couple of museums; behind it are the pointed towers of the Église Saint-Nicolas, which dates back to the 12th century; and up on the hill on the right, one wing of the château de Blois (it has three wings in three different styles).

Here's a closer view of the cathedral, which was built in the 16th century and has a Renaissance-style bell tower.

And here's a panoramic view I put together using two or three separate photos that I took from the left (south) bank of the Loire river. You can enlarge all the photos by clicking or tapping on them once and then again.