8 June 2026

Taken this morning from my happy place - in the car, on the road, setting off on our travels -
 

Crossing north-eastern France we stopped to take a look at Saint Quentin, thinking of a coffee break. The town was a little drab and depressed, and it's fair to say that the huge basilica has been greatly neglected for many years.

But what a gem it is, nonetheless. I loved the giant labyrinth on the floor -

and the beauty in its faded disrepair -

 

On to Troyes for the night, while reading up and reminding ourselves en route of its connections with Joan of Arc.

In the town's main square we had a late lunch snack at L'Illustré, opposite  the Hotel de Ville. With, appropriately, a glass of champagne each, since Troyes is the former capital (before Reims succeeded it) of Champagne.

Walking back over the bridge crossing not the Seine (which is very close by) but the Quai de Fontaine, I remembered these flying geese from our last visit here in 2022.

and the wee dog captured in mid-joyful leap to chase the geese -

We walked past the Hôtel Dieu with its lovely garden/potager - in French, not Cambridge style! -

To Troyes cathedral where the teenaged Joan of Arc, having saved France from a takeover by the English monarchy, escorted the rightful heir Charles VII down this very aisle right here below to take mass in the same place where the treaty of Troyes had been signed  -

The moment was, I guess, a symbolic finger to the treaty that had overthrown the continuation of the French dynasty. And afterwards she joined Charles on a march to Reims where he was crowned in Reims cathedral with Jeanne at his side. What an extraordinary (very) young woman she was.

We thought the cathedral seemed somewhat deprived of some of its paintings and treasures, but the stained glass windows are really impressive.

Later we walked back through the old medieval town centre and to the very end of its narrowest alley - the Ruelle des Chats - where there are literally only centimetres between the tops of the buildings - 

to dinner at Pierre et Clément - with a champagne aperitif, naturally, then a bottle of Chablis - in anticipation of Bourgogne tomorrow.