Churches!

It is going to be a day of churches!
Arrived uneventfully and used my French to get us directions to bus that allows us to bypass the RER train and the long lines. Le Bus Directe goes to the train station we need-Monteparnass to get to Poitiers. The next train leaves at 3 pm so by the time we get in there won't be much sightseeing today. There should be time to get the layout of the city down which will important as tomorrow is church day. Poitiers is a city that hit that was very important in medieval France. The Battle of Tours took place here in 732 when Charles Martel halted the Islamic invasion of France. There also was in important battle here during the Hundred Years War which is fitting because Joan of Arc is connected with Poitiers. After she presented herself to the Dauphin at Chinon, she was sent to Poitiers 'for examination' by the church leaders to make sure she really was hearing God's voice. She passed and was sent back to Chinon and the French leaders but one has to wonder, at that point during the war, the French were is bad shape, one would have thought they would have taken any help they could get. I guess however 15th century France didn't count a teenage girl as a viable source of help until 'proven' she was the handmaiden of God.

Poitiers has a lot of 11th and 12th century churches, including the Bapitiste of St Jean, rumored to be the oldest Christian edifice in the West as it dates from the Merovingian period. For those of you who do not remember the Merovingian kings, they are probably best known from Dan Brown's book The DeVinci Code. They ruled before the Caputian Kings which is the time period Eleanor fits in and I think I have now shared the sum total of my knowledge. The train is through the lovely farmlands and Poitiers is the first stop. Today Poitiers is a major university town but the city center still has lots of medieval architecture. The churches on the plan for tomorrow
Saint Radagonde-6th century
Saint Hilaire de Grand which was consecrated during Eleanor's life-1149
Poitiers cathedral
Museum de st croix-ok not a church per se but at the site of an old Abbey
Saint Jean de monitieneuf-another from the time of Eleanor
Poitiers Notre Dame
And finally the palace at Poitiers which is now the courthouse but was the home of the counts and countesses of Poitier only one of which is known to most Americans. He was Richard, Count de Poitiers but we know him as Richard the Lionhearted.