Travel journal, part 4: Orléans

Yesterday I once again went to discover a new place! Me and Liss (Sophie is enjoying the sunshine in the south of France...) took the train to Orléans, about 130km to the south of Paris. This was really a very beautiful city with the river Loire floathing trough it. I actually thought it was almost like being somewhere i the south! Especially when a lot of the houses by the river where white.

We walked a lot by the river because it was just so beautiful and calm, not at all like in Paris where there's always the traffic wherever you go. The athmosohere in Orléans was also very different to the athmosphere in Paris. People seemed... I don't know... perhaps happier? Every time we entered a shop, someone said "Bonjour" in a very lively way. And everyone was so nice and friendly! I don't think I met anyone who was as grumpy as some people in Paris! There was even some strangers in the street that came and talked to us when they noticed we were foreigners.

I've heard several times that all the rest of France thinks the parisians are snobby and unpolite and perhaps that's true. I just haven't noticed it before since the parisians still are much more talkative than finns :) But I guess Orléans is more like the "real France".



What do you think of this? Isn't it lovely! :) An old man singin in the street with that thing I don't know the name of and a young father dancing with his daughter. Idyllic, isn't it? Even the locals gathered around him to listen! I shot this video in the old town, just after we had eaten a Quiche Lorraine (a very traditional pie with ham and cheese) in a nice little café.

In Orléans I also went to have an extempore haircut. It was a bit cheaper than in Paris so I thought why not? My hair doesn't look much different, though... Still long but at least now it doesn't look like I haven't cut it for a very long time.

Orléans is also famous for Jeanne d'Arc who saved the city from being taken over by the englishmen in 1429. Therefor there were statues of her everywhere!


Here's kind of the city center of Orléans with Jeanne d'Arc sitting on a horse in the middle of the square. Not far from here there was also the house of Jeanne d'Arc, i.e. a house where she lived when she visited this city. But the house was actually nothing special. It was reconstructed in 1965 and the museum inside was quite boring. But apart from that museum, I liked Orléans very much! I'm glad I went there :)