On the way back from Morbihan in south Brittany, we crossed back into the central Loire valley and found a nice campsite on l’île aux Moulins in the river between the later partitioned towns of Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hôtel, just outside of Orléans. This intermediate stop brought us back coincidentally to another connection with Joan of Arc.
It was here during the Hundred Years’ War, after receiving her field promotion, she had her first military success, delivering the town from English occupation on 12 June 1429–on battle’s anniversary in 1920, Joan was beatified and declared a national heroine. Following the Edict of Nantes to seek some accommodation for Protestantism, the town was split with the original community of Jargeau listed as a safe haven for Huguenots.
Symbolically as a statement against religious tolerance and to practically divide Republicans from Royalists, the ancient stone bridge linking the two communities was destroyed during the French Revolution and anti-clerical terror. The medieval foundations are still present as stepping stones but the new span was not completed until 1998. During Nazi occupation, the town was host to a concentration camp for political prisoners, specifically a KZ-Lager for Nomaden—that is, Roma and Sinti people rounded up. The area to the east of town, Le Clos Ferbois, made a memorial to the resistance and some seventeen thousand individuals who were incarcerated there.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the ancient quarter of Maccagno (with synchronopticæ)
thirteen years ago: musical performance rights in Germany, paternalism and the EU plus ad revenue
fourteen years ago: a cursed economy
