Blois
Blois is located midway between Tours and Orléans on a hill, overlooking the north bank of the Loire River.  The Beauce is to the north and the Sologne is to its south.  The town is located on Route National 152, which runs along the Loire River, at the intersection of D 957.  It is just south of the Auto Route A 10.  Blois is about 100 miles south of Paris, 33 miles east-northeast of Tours and 33 miles southwest of Orléans.  Blois is the capital of the Département of Loir-et-Cher.

The first mention of Blois was in the 6th century by Gregory of Tours.  During the early Middle Ages it became the capital of the counts of Blois, the antecedents of the Capetian French kings.  The counts of Blois were among France’s most powerful feudal lords, from the late 10th through the late 12th century, controlling two estates – Champagne and the area of Blois and Chartres.  In 1135, the son of the Count of Blois, and the daughter of William the Conqueror, became the king of England. 

In 1234, the Count of Champagne sold the County of Blois to Louis IX.  Blois was subsequently acquired, towards the end of the 14th century, by the duc d’Orléans, Louis de France [the brother of Charles VI].  Blois then became the site of the court of Orléans.

In 1429, Joan d’Arc left Blois to commence the siege of Orléans.  In 1462, Louis XII was born at the château.  In 1498, Louis XII, succeeded Charles VIII to the French throne and the Blois château became the royal residence.  He was the son of Duke Charles and the grandson of Duke Louis, and had been born in the Château at Blois.  Consequently, Blois became the quasi capital of France until the end of the 16th century.

Upon assuming the throne in 1515, François I, who divided his time between Amboise and Blois, began the rebuilding of the Château using Italian architectural elements.  On December 23, 1588, Henry III had Henri de Guise, who was plotting Henry’s downfall, murdered on the château’s second floor.  Eight months latter, Henry III was murdered by an assassin’s knife.  Subsequently, Louis XIII imprisoned his mother, Marie de Médicis, in the château; she escaped two years later.  In 1626, Louis XIII gave his brother, Gaston de France, duc d’Orléans, the country of Blois and the duchies of Orléans and Chartres.  Gaston hired François Mansart to design the castle’s classical wing.

The Château de Blois was begun, in the 13th century, as a feudal castle.  It was worked on until the 17th century.  The States-General’s hall, the castle’s main hall, was completed in the 13th century.  In the mid 15th century, the Charles d’Orléans’ Gallery was built.  The Louis XII Wing and the Chapelle Saint-Calais, which made the transition between the Flamboyant Gothic and the French Renaissance, were constructed between 1498 and 1503.  Between 1515 and 1524, the strictly Renaissance François I façade was completed.  Its spiraling staircase, in an octagonal well, reaches the height of 5 stories.  Its elaborately ornamented balustrades prominently display the kings symbol, the salamander.

Blois is the center of an area that produces mainly wheat.  It has long been an important market for asparagus, corn, wine and brandy.  Shoes, and other footware, are made in the town as is a fine chocolate.  The town boasts of a number of Gothic and Renaissance buildings and picturesque ancient streets.  It is one of the major tourist centers of the Loire Valley. 
 

Bourges
Bourges is located on the northern edge of the Massif Central, at almost the exact center of France.  It is at the confluence of the Canal du Berry and the Auron and Yèvre rivers.  The town is 34 miles northeast of Châteauroux, 148 miles south of Paris, 70 miles south-southeast of Orléans, 60 miles southeast of Blois and 72 miles east-southeast of Tours.  Once the capital of Berry, then Aquitaine, Bourges is now the capital of the Cher Département.

Bourges is located on the site of an ancient Celtic capital whose chieftain, Vercingetorix, was defeated by Julius Caesar in 52 BC.  The Romans massacred its 40,000 inhabitants during the conquest.  The town then became the important Roman settlement of Avaricum [town of abundant water], with a river port, consisting of a harbor and wharves.  Avaricum also had a vast Roman amphitheater.  The town flourished until the coming of Saint-Ursin who brought Christianity with him in the 3rd century.  It became an archiepiscopal see.  In 1101 the town became French.  Charlemagne unified Berry [named for the Bituriges Celts of the region] and Bourges became the capital of the duchy of Berry by the 14th century.  From 1360 to 1416, Duke Jean de Berry spent a fortune on commissioning works of art for the town.

During the Hundred Years’ War [1337 and 1453], when other parts of France were in English hands, Bourges was the capital of Charles VII of France.  Charles published the Pramatic Sanction of Bourges in 1438, which limited papal authority over the French church.  In 1463, Louis XI founded the University of Bourges.  The university’s influence spread beyond Berry, attracting such notables as John Calvin who latter published his ideas on the reform of the Church.  He received considerable support in Bourges, and the rest of Berry, resulting in division of the populist during the Wars of Religion.  During the French Revolution, the university was abolished. 

In 1487, over two-thirds of the town was destroyed by fire and Berry’s influence and wealth declined.  From the 17th century Bourges declined further, while other towns on the Loire River expanded economically.  In 1819, the Berry canal was begun and latter the railroad was built, setting the climate for an economic revival.  The town finally revived in 1871 when the French army built an arsenal.

The Cathedral of Saint-Étienne is one of France’s largest, and most beautiful, High Gothic cathedrals.  The cathedral is remarkably long, with a length of 407 feet.  It is also France’s widest Gothic cathedral.  It was begun in 1195 and was worked on to the end of the 13th century.  The cathedral, which has two asymmetrical towers and a west façade that has five beautifully sculptured doorways, dominates the summit of the hill the town was built upon.  The middle portal, with the theme of the Last Judgement, is a masterpiece of 13th century Gothic sculpture. 

The cathedral is a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture, with a unity of design and harmonious proportions.  It features five towering inner aisles, no transepts and a wonderful 12th century crypt under the choir.  The crypt’s 12th and 13th century stained windows are exceptional.  The cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.   

The Berry Museum, inside the elegant Hôtel Cujas, was built by a rich Florentine merchant in 1515.  It houses a large collection of Gallo-Roman and Celtic artifacts.  Both the museum, and the Hôtel-de-Ville, were constructed from Gallo-Roman fortifications during the 15th and 16th centuries.

An excellent example of 15th century French civil architecture, which is considered to be one of France’s greatest secular Gothic structures, is the palace of Jacques Coeur.  Its architectural treatment is richly elegant and its varied decorations are sumptuous.  In 1427, Jacques Coeur, who had previously amassed a personal fortune, became Charles VII’s chief financier.  In 1443, Coeur commissioned the building of the palace.  However, in 1451 he fell from favor and was arrested.  He escaped from prison, but died on the Greek island of Chios in 1456.

Bourges is located in a rich agricultural and livestock-raising area and is a center for marketing cattle, cereals, sheep and wine.  Since the end of World War II, Bourges has expanded economically.  Aircraft and aerospace equipment, armaments [it is the center of France’s armaments industry], chemicals, electrical equipment, processed food, machinery, metals and tires are produced in Bourges.  Its tourism is enhanced by an annual pop and rock music festival, known as Le Printemps de Bourges, that features foreign and French performers.
 

Chartres
The town of Chartres was built on a hill, surrounded by grainfields, on the left bank of the Eure River.  It is on the fertile plains of Beauce, in the Region of Centre, in the northcentral part of France.  The town is located just north of the A 11 Auto Route, on Route National 10 where it intersects with Route National 154, D 906 and D 939.  It is 50 miles southwest of Paris, 42 miles north-northwest of Oréans and 75 miles north of Blois.  Chartres is the capital of the Eure-et-Loir Département.

The name Chartres is derived from the name of the Celtic tribe, the Carnutes, that founded the town.  In about 50 BC, Julius Caesar’s Roman Legions took the town.  In 858, Chartres was burned by the Normans.  The counts of Blois and the counts of Champagne ruled the countship of Chartres during the Middle Ages.  In 1286, the town was sold to the king of France.  It was occupied by the English, for about 15 years, between 1337 and 1453, during the Hundred Years' War.  In 1528, François I elevated the countship of Chartres to a duchy.  The town was unsuccessfully attacked by the Protestants during the Wars of Religion.  In 1594, Henry IV was crowned king at the Cathédral de Chartres.  Between 1940 and 1944, during World War II, the town was seriously damaged.

The center of Chatres, and its highest point, is crowned by its cathedral.  The original cathedral, which was built in the mid 12th century, was destroyed in 1194.  The High Gothic Cathédral de Notre-Dame was mostly built over a 30 year period during the mid 13th century.  It was constructed upon the former site of a 12th century church, utilizing the older church’s crypt, tower bases and west façade.  It was the first High Gothic cathedral to use flying buttresses. 

The cathedral is famous for the beauty of its south spire, its 150 12th and 13th century stained-glass windows [over 25,000 square feet], its more than 2,000 portrait like architectural sculptures of religious figures and its Renaissance choir screen.  The Clocher Neuf [the ‘new spire’], built in 1513, is located on the cathedral’s northwest corner.  It is the most prominent of the cathedral’s later additions, having been designed to balance the spire that had been built in 1145.  The two spires rise to 378 and 350 feet respectively.  The cathedral is one of the foremost examples of High Gothic architecture in north central France.

The 15th century former Episcopal palace, next to the cathedral, houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres.  The museum’s permanent collection of canvases mainly concentrates on the 16th through 20th century.  The collection includes Brosamer, Ténier, Watteau and Zurbarán.  There are also tapestries and temporary exhibitions.

Cobbled streets, lined with half-timbered houses, surround the cathedral. Tertres, steep staircases, lead from the old town down to the hump-backed stone bridges spanning the Eure River.  This colorful area contains an 8th century old house, medieval tanneries, wash houses, views of mills and an interesting view of the cathedral.

Chatres is a market town for the agricultural area of Beauce.  Its products include automobile accessories, beer, farm machinery, fertilizer, flour, home appliances, leatherwork, electronic equipment and perfumes. 

                                      
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