On to Paris

---

While we were eating breakfast at the hotel in Orléans and trying to decide what to do for the day, I decided to go out to the lobby and check out the brochures they had there. I came across a place that I thought would interest Ken as he is reading about the Knights Templar. It is a place called "Commanderie templière d'Arville". It was founded in 1128 or 1130 and became a farming center, a recruitment centre, a training base for the knights waiting for their departure to the Holy Land, and a place of worship. The Templars lived here until their arrest, decided by Philippe IV le Bel, King of France, who accused them of heresy, on Friday 13 October 1307. The Templars lived here until their arrest, decided by Philip IV the Fair, King of France, who accused them of heresy, on Friday 13 October 1307. It is an amazingly good museum and interpretive centre....very well done and the audio guide we took was excellent. We were very pleased we decided to check itout and we STRONGLY suggest that anyone in the area do the same. It is WELL worth the trip! It's about 2 hours southwest of Paris. After our visit there we had a nice lunch in the town and the headed straight to Paris so as to miss any possible rush hour. The traffic was mostly good though we did hit a few spots of traffic jams. Luckily, we had the GPS because without it I HIGHLY doubt we would have found our hotel. Heck, even with the GPS we had a hard time! They don't mark streets very well anywhere in France! We remembered today why we NEVER have a car in Paris! We dropped our bags at the hotel and then drove around the block to the Montparnasse Train station to return our rental car. That being done, we scoped out where we have to go on Sunday morning to catch the bus to Charles deGaulle airport. After a bit of a sieste we went out for a lovely dinner. Our hotel is right around the corner (corners!) from many interesting and vibrant restaurants. We settled on an Italian place where I had an amazing risotto and Ken had a 4 cheese penne (glorified mac and cheese but very delicious!). After dinner we took a stroll around the area and are now back in our room and ready to sleep. Tomorrow we plan to go to Musée d'Orsay and Sacré Coeur and the Pigalle area.

---

Photos

Grave effigy of a Templar
The goal of the Templar knight was to die a martyr in the Holy Land

LOL
He's a knight!

LOL
I'm a witch!