poitiers

To Poitiers…somehow!

Jenny Harlen

07 Apr 2025 — 1 min read

So…this morning I’m trying to catch a bus, train, anything, to Poitiers. Ten minutes down the road. But this week they’re digging up the road, they’re digging up the tracks, digging up the bus stops, and it’s all a right mess.

Regrouping with a café and a pain au chocolat in the village bakery, and according to one friendly local there’ll be a train in an hour. Maybe.

I should have just taken the bike!

My project today is finding Eleonor: she was born here, died here (I think?), built things here. But all that was back in the 1100s, so who knows. I’ll try!

Chinon: so many stories!

I biked up to Chinon in the sun, stopped for a quiet café on the square, parked up Selma the bike by the drawbridge, and strolled on in. Meh…not such a grand chateau as the others here on the Loire, I thought, just a few crumbled towers on a

The shopping street in a cave

This came as a complete surprise, Selma the e-bike and I were just biking along the river back to the van and took a back way because the road along the Loire was a bit narrow. And suddenly found ourselves ducking through arches and tunnels, our path took us through

Trogdo villages

Selma and I are out exploring, and look what we found! Lots of these houses, shops, garages dug into the cliffside. They call them trogdolyte dwellings, for some reason that makes me think of Shrek. Actually it just means houses in caves. We’ve just stopped at a troglodyte cafe

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud

Mission accomplished! I found the three powerbrokers of the 12th century! Eleonore, Henry, Richard. Plus a daughter-in-law, the wife of John. Eleonore of Aquitaine was one hell of a woman, she was married to two kings, father of three kings, and her daughters were married into crowns of their own.

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Chinon: so many stories!

The shopping street in a cave

Trogdo villages

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud