Six kilometres southwest of Meung along the Loire, BEAUGENCY is a pretty little town, which, in contrast to its innocuous appearance today, played its part in the conniving games of early medieval politics. In 1152 the marriage of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine was annulled by the Council of Beaugency in the church of Notre-Dame, allowing Eleanor to marry Henry Plantagenet, the future Henry II of England. Her huge land holdings in southwest France thus passed to the English crown – which already controlled Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Touraine – and the struggles between the French and English kings over their claims to these territories, and to the French throne itself, lasted for centuries. In search for a Beaugency hotel, look at , this website.Liberated by the indefatigable Joan of Arc on her way to Orléans in 1429, Beaugency was a constant battleground in the Hundred Years War due to its strategic significance as the only Loire bridge-crossing at that time between Orléans and Blois. Remarkably, the 26-arch bridge still stands and gives an excellent view of the once heavily fortified medieval heart of the town, which clusters tightly around a handful of central squares. Place St-Firmin, with its statue of Joan, is overlooked by a tower of a church destroyed during the Revolution, while place Dunois is bordered by the massive eleventh-century Tour de César, which was formerly part of the rather plain, fifteenth-century Château Dunois (daily except Tues 10am, 11am, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm; June–Aug also 5pm; €3.30). It now houses a small museum of traditional Orléanais life, whose obligatory guided tours can definitely be given a miss. The square is completed by the rather severe Romanesque abbey church of Notre-Dame, the venue for the council's fateful matrimonial decision in 1152. Shady Place du Docteur-Hyvernaud, two blocks north of place Dunois, is dominated by the elaborate sixteenth-century facade of the Hôtel de Ville. Inside, the main council chamber is graced by eight fine embroidered wall hangings from the era of Louis XIII, but you'll have to ask at the tourist office (on the same square) to be allowed inside to have a look. One set illustrates the four continents as perceived in the seventeenth century, with the rest dramatizing pagan rites such as gathering mistletoe and sacrificing animals.
Pages in section ‘Beaugency’: Practicalities.
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