How’s this for a travel show’s recommendation for someplace to visit: “one of France’s best-preserved medieval towns” that was followed by scenes of half-timbered buildings, ivy-covered stone walls, meandering cobblestone streets, and a towering 12th-century cathedral. Based on that, it was an easy decision to book the train tickets to go to Bourges while we were in the area, having stayed about an hour away in Orléans after a wedding in Paris. The description came from the France TV 5 program called “Les 100 lieux qu’il faut voir” that we would translate as—and agree with—”The 100 Places that you must see”. 

New Orleans, Louisiana is a favorite US city for us. It’s one of the few places in America where you can walk out of a bar in the French Quarter with a “go-cup” (a plastic cup containing an alcoholic beverage) and not get arrested. The nonchalant atmosphere of the Big Easy gives you a sense of freedom not found in a lot of other locations around the country. With that as a background, we wondered what the original Orléans would be like so we returned to the city where, almost 9 years ago, we spent our first night as permanent residents of France.