Today was a transition day, never any fun because we have to leave Paris, schlep all our luggage up and down the stairwells of the metro, get on the RER train to the Charles de Gaulle airport, then find Hertz to pick up our rental car. Getting the luggage to the Hertz rental counter was bad enough, and even though Carl is a Gold Club member, we didn’t get into our car, a brand-new Mercedes-Benz (!) until about two hours after we checked out of the hotel.

Then, the traffic getting out of Paris was something else! It reminded us of the constant bottleneck on the 405 in Los Angeles. In all it took us three hours to get to Beaugency, a distance of only 132 kilometers or 82 miles! Unreal!

When I was in sixth grade, I went to camp for the first time and learned a round about French cathedrals: Orléans, Beaugency, Notre-Dame, de Cléry, Vendome, Vendome. I have never sung it since, but I still remember it all these many years later. It was only recently that I made contact with a childhood friend and asked her about the words, and she helped me with the second name, Beaugency. I’m realizing now that all these churches are found in the Loire Valley, as I help Carl watch for the exit signs.

At Beaugency we visited the Abbaye of Notre-Dame and had lunch. There was also a statue of Joan of Arc erected in front of the church. Apparently she commanded one of the forces stationed here at Beaugency.