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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: the struggles between the French and English kings over their claims to these territories - and to the French throne itself - lasted for centuries afterwards. Liberated by the indefatigable Joan of Arc on her way to Orleans 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 Orleans and Blois. Remarkably, the 26-arch bridge still stands and gives an excellent view of the once heavily fortified medieval heart of the town. The two central squares - place St-Firmin , with its statue of Joan and a tower of a church destroyed during the Revolution, and place Dunois - are atmospherically lit by flickering gaslights. Place Dunois is bordered by the massive eleventh-century Tour de Cesar , which was formerly part of the rather plain fifteenth-century Chateau Dunois (daily except Tues 10am-noon & 2-5pm; Oct-April closes 4pm; 22F/?3.35). It now houses a small museum of traditional Orleanais life, whose 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 fatal matrimonial decision in 1152. Today the town casts a much more romantic image of the medieval period, and wandering around the streets of the attractive old town and along the shaded river bank is probably the best way to pass the time peacefully here. But if the urge to sightsee is strong, go and look at the embroidered wall hangings in the council chamber of the Hotel de Ville on place du Docteur-Hyvernaud, two blocks north of place Dunois (May-Sept Mon-Fri 11am-4.30pm, Sat 11am-3pm; rest of year Tues-Fri 3-4.30pm, Sat 11am-3pm; 8F/?1.23). 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.
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