If you’re in Paris but would like to visit something off the usual tourist trail, know that within 100 km of the capital there are countless things to see. Heading south you’ll first come across the beautiful châteaux of Fontainebleau and Versailles, but if you go a little further you’ll reach the splendid Orléans.
Orléans is the capital of the Loiret department, on the banks of the Loire. It isn’t very big and a day is enough to see it all, but it’ll steal your heart.
Want to know what there is to see?
Among the things to see in Orléans, I recommend starting from the great Place du Martroi, from which the city’s main avenues branch out. At its centre stands the great equestrian statue of Joan of Arc.
Beware of a common misconception: Joan was not born in Orléans, but in Domrémy, in Lorraine. She’s tied to this city because in 1429, with her courage, she lifted its siege by the English during the Hundred Years’ War: hence the nickname “the Maid of Orléans”. She fought on until she was captured, sold to the English and burned as a heretic at Rouen in 1431.
Perhaps the gloomy weather played its part, but I literally lost myself in the city, discovering its places of culture and the life of a young woman who changed the fate of France forever.
Off we go!
The cathedral of Orléans
If you started from the main square, recognising the beautiful cathedral of Orléans won’t be hard: it’s simply remarkable, and it stands on one of the city’s most important streets, the rue Jeanne d’Arc.
The cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Cross (Sainte-Croix) and has very ancient origins: according to tradition, the first place of worship dates to the 4th century, linked to the legend of Saint Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, who is said to have brought here a fragment of Christ’s True Cross.
Speaking of relics: even Louis IX had the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris built to house his own.
Back to the cathedral of Orléans: I must tell you that what you see today isn’t the original. The early-medieval church was followed by a first Gothic cathedral, which collapsed and was rebuilt from 1278 (its nine radial choir chapels survive); it was then damaged by the Huguenots during the Wars of Religion and rebuilt, in neo-Gothic style, between the 17th and 18th centuries.
In short, a rather eventful history.
The Fine Arts Museum
If you want to visit Orléans, don’t miss the Fine Arts Museum, right next to the cathedral, which holds works from the 15th century to today. Without world-famous pieces, it’s still rich in interesting paintings, from the Flemish masters to Tamara de Lempicka.
The real discoveries, for me, were Léon Cogniet, a 19th-century artist with some fine canvases here, and some photographic exhibitions on the theme of reality and perception.
Not to be missed if you love photography.
The house of Joan of Arc
To learn more about Joan of Arc, in Orléans you can visit the “house of Joan of Arc”: not her birthplace (which was in Domrémy), but a reconstruction of the home where the heroine stayed in 1429, during the siege.
Put like that it might sound uninteresting, but inside there’s a small multimedia museum with material on the Maid’s life that will help you get to know her better. The original building, like many others, was destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War.
The archaeological museum
I also recommend the archaeological museum of Orléans, which holds the incredible treasure of Neuvy-en-Sullias, a set of Gallo-Roman bronzes including a splendid trumpet and an equestrian statue.
One room is devoted to trade on the Loire and to sugar refining, which took place in Orléans; another section is dedicated to the life of Joan of Arc. The museum is set in the beautiful Renaissance Hôtel Cabu, with a very cheap entrance ticket (check the updated price).
Other attractions to see in Orléans
Other interesting attractions are the Hôtel de Ville (the town hall) and the many little wooden houses that mark some typical corners of the city. They aren’t as well preserved as in Troyes or in Amiens, because of the bombings, but they’ll still give you an idea of what Orléans looked like in the Middle Ages.
Don’t forget a walk to the remains of the old city walls of Orléans, visible next to the left transept of the cathedral and in the Saint-Paul district.
And you, are you drawn more to its heroine Joan of Arc or to the atmosphere of its medieval houses on the Loire?
