Montargis - A Royal Residence

Friday 15 Dec 23 – This morning following another quick breakfast we finished packing the suitcases and were in the hotel lobby at midday with a fifty-minute wait for our taxi. The trip to Paris Bercy station for our train to Montargis was reasonably quick considering the heavy traffic and I had not appreciated how far it was. The taxi driver was another friendly Haitian. On the train we took the two fold down seats at the entrance so had a place for our heavy suitcases. Arriving at Montargis station, Fred was waiting on the platform and after a quick sightseeing tour through town we drove the 36 kilometres to Ouzouer-sur-Loire and Fred and Leslie’s farm. By now it was getting cold again, minus seven degrees. We were shown around the farm and its numerous outbuildings by Fred and Leslie. God only knows what they are going to do with them all. Their dog, Cody, is a very snappy sheep dog which tries to nip us all the time and needs watching. Tonight, we sleep in Fred’s mothers house in Loris because the dog is not to be trusted during the night if we come down to the toilet. Fred’s mum passed away a year ago and the house remains fully furnished but not used much.

Montargis Origins and Middle Ages - Numerous Gallo-Roman artifacts have been found in the area and many are in the town's Gâtinais Museum. Later the town was a stronghold of the Frankish king Clovis I. Montargis was originally a seat of the house of Courtenay, which fortified a château on a hill overlooking the town. The town was ceded to the king of France in 1188. Eleanor Plantagenet, second daughter of King John of England and wife of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (killed at the Battle of Evesham), died here on 13 April 1275. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was a royal residence. In 1528 King Francis I granted the town to his sister-in-law, Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara and daughter of King Louis XII. After her husband, Ercole II, the Duke of Ferrara, died in 1559, Renée resided at Montargis. She sheltered there Protestant Huguenots fleeing from persecutions in Paris and elsewhere during the 16th century French Wars of Religion.Read more