France 2023

L'Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel

L'Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel was founded around 708 by Bishop Aubert of Avranches as a small prayer chapel, and was greatly expanded after the Contentin Peninsula was annexed from the Duchy of Brittany into the Duchy of Normandy by William I Longsword. The original prayer chapel, now called Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre, was rediscovered under the nave of the church in 1898, and fully excavated in 1959.

The Abbaye's popularity as a pilgrimage site waned after the Reformation, leading to its closure in 1791. The French government subsequently took it over as a prison, nicknamed the Bastille des Mers. This was in turn closed in 1863 after a public campaign to restore it as a historic monument.

La Porte de l'Avancee et La Porte de Roi

The Porte de L'Avancee and the Porte de Roi are the outer and inner gates leading to the medieval village on the east side of the island. Historically, the area between the two gates would have been kept clear, but later on the village expanded into the space. The 1888 restaurant and inn "La Mère Poulard" is visible directly above the Porte de L'Avancee.

La Porte des Fanils

The Porte des Fanils is the seperate secondary gate on the west side of Mont-Saint-Michel which gives access to the Tour Gabriel. An additional footpath passes along the mountain terraces behind the village to access the Abbaye above, although only the main entrance from the village is actually open.

Musée des 24 Heures du Le Mans

Model Room

The model room of the museum contains small-scale models of every single car that has ever run the 24 Heures from its very beginning in 1923, as well as a map of the Circuit de la Sarthe course and detailed dioramas of the grandstand configurations of 1925, 1927, 1952, 1957, 1973, and 1995.

Motorcycle Collection

The historic Bol d'Or 24-hour motorcycle endurance race was held on the Circuit de Bugatti (the dedicated track sections of the Circuit de le Sarthe) from 1971 to 1977. When the Bol d'Or moved to the Circuit Paul Ricard in Marseille, a new 24 Heures Moto race was created to continue motorcycle endurance racing at Le Mans.

Historic Cars

While naturally focused on its namesake race, the Musée also maintains an extensive collection of notable early automobiles.

La Crosière Jaune

The Crosière Jaune, also known as the "Expédition Citröen Centre-Asie", was a 1931-1932 expedition across the historic Silk Road trade route. It was the third and final long-distance safari expedition led by Georges-Marie Haardt and sponsored by Automobiles Citröen, following the 1922 crossing of the Sahara Desert from Touggourt (Algiers) to Timbuktu and the even more ambitious 1924 Crosière Noir across Africa from Colomb-Béchar to Cape Town. Wishing to "up the ante" over other African expeditions sponsored by various rival automakers (Renault, Peugeot, Chrysler and Chevrolet were all involved in such efforts) Haardt and Andre Citröen himself planned out a vastly more difficult 12,000 kilometer trek from Beirut, Lebanon to Peking, China.

Because the Soviet Union withdrew its permission for the expedition to pass through the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, the route had to be revised further south through the Himalayas. In order to accomplish this, the expedition was divided into two seperate groups: the Pamir Group under Haardt travelled east from Beirut and crossed the Himalayas using a set of relatively small half-tracks which could be broken down into portage-loads of 30 to 50 kilos, while the China Group under Victor Point travelled west from Tainjin with the larger half-tracks built for the original itinerary. The intent was for the two groups to rendezvous and consolidate in Kashgar, shipping the mountain vehicles home and continuing the journey across the Gobi Desert using the long-range vehicles.

Not too surprisingly, both groups ran into extremely serious unexpected difficulties along the way. The Pamir Group had to abandon five of their seven half-tracks in Srinagar due to having gravely overestimated the number of porters and pack animals available, while the China Group was taken prisoner for several months by the local warlord in Xinjiang. Nonetheless, they overcame all odds and reached Peking on 12 February, 1932. Unfortunately, the final phase of the expedition had to be cut short after Haardt succumbed to double pneumonia; the expedition took ship from Peking to Hanoi, drove a final one thousand kilometres down the coast of Vietnam from Hanoi through Hue to Saigon, and then returned directly to France on the passenger liner Félix-Roussel.

The Citröen-Kégress Autochenille Type P17 on display at the Musée des 24 Heures is "Scarabée d’Or III", the command vehicle of the Pamir Group and the only definitively documented vehicle from the Crosière on public display. It is a 1931 Citroen C4F chassis fitted with Kégresse tracks; the Pamir Group had six of these half-tracks (four in car-bodied configuration and two in truck-bodied configuration), plus a larger and heavier Autochenille Type P14 which carried a Transmission sans Fils (radio) system and generator. Some secondary sources claim that several of the Pamir Group half-tracks were actually hybrid models which combined the larger chassis of the Type P19 B with the more fuel-efficient four-cylinder engine of the Type P17; whether or not this is accurate, "Scarabée d’Or" clearly lacks the enlarged front track roller and reduced rear track roller of a P19. The China Group used seven Autochenille Type P21 based on the Citroen C6 G chassis, all in truck-bodied configuration.

In the end, Scarabée d’Or was the only Pamir Group half-track to return to France, along with at least one of the China Group's Type P21s. Citröen intended to display the returned vehicles at the company museum in Paris, but it appears that only the P21 was ultimately exhbibited; there are no pictures of the P17 and the Musée exhibit states that Scarabée-d’Or was still crated in parts when it was donated in 1961.

La Terre en Rond

La Terre en Rond was a 1958-1959 around-the-world expedition by pharmacy students Jean-Claude Baudet and Jaccques Séguéla. With this ordinary Citroen 2CV -- not the twin-engined "Saraha" desert expedition model -- Baudet and Séguéla travelled 80,000 kilometres by road and 20,000 kilometers by sea, averaging 250 kilometers per day and ultimately succeeding in making the first automobile circumnavigation of the world.

Le Mans Cars

In addition to overall victory in the 24 Heures race, Le Mans has historically awarded honors for "Index of Performance" and "Index of Efficiency". The Index of Performance was a relatively simple ratio of distance traveled divided by a target distance set on the basis of engine size, while the Index of Efficiency was a more complex formula which factored speed, weight, and fuel consumption.

Centenaire 24 Heures du Mans

The Centenaire 24 Heures du Mans is scheduled to run 10-11 June 2023, marking one hundred years of this historic endurance race. The car displayed here is one of four Porsche 963s which will be running in the new Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) prototype category, making Le Mans the second major race for the 963 after its debut earlier this year with two cars at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona.

Update: Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 5 Porsche 963 completed the 2023 24 Heures de Le Mans race in 16th place, completing 325 laps. Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 Porsche 963 took twenty-second place, completing 320 laps. Hertz Team Jota's No. 38 Porsche 963 took fortieth place, completing 244 laps. And finally, Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 75 Porsche 963 did not complete the race.

La Storia Di Le Mans

For the first time in fifty years, Ferrari's Scuderia racing division will be participating in the top tier of Le Mans, with a pair of prototype 499Ps in the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) category. While the 499 P is not on display, the Italian marque has sponsored an entire mini-exhibit to celebrate its return to Le Mans.

Update: Team AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari 499P won the 2023 24 Heures de Le Mans race, completing 342 laps in 24 hours, 18.099 seconds. Team AF Corse's No. 50 Ferrari 499P took fifth place, completing 337 laps.

Cathédrale Saint-Julien du Mans

This Gothic cathedral was built from the 6th to 14th century over the site of the original Roman forum at the northeast corner of the original city core of Le Mans, now called the Cité Plantagenêt). It includes one of the earliest known examples of a five-sided chevet structure of the apse, choir and radiating chapels which became standard for cathedrals. The Y-shaped flying buttresses are a unique feature not seen in other cathedrals.

Cité Plantagenêt de Le Mans

The Cité Plantagenêt, also known as Le Vieux Mans, is the historic core of Le Mans. It is surrounded by one of the best preserved sets of Roman defensive walls in the world, behind only Constantinople (Istanbul) and Rome itself. These walls date to the fourth century, originally measuring over ten metres high and incorporating no less than forty fifteen-metre-high stronghold towers. In the modern day, nineteen of these towers survive along with wall segments totaling nearly 1300 metres in total.

Directly adjaccent to the Cathedral is a substantial section of medieval wall directly abutting a small but well-preserved piece of the original Roman wall. This is the "Bishop's Enclosure", constructed in 1217 in order to enable an expansion of the Cathedral beyond the limits of the Roman wall. What we see today is in fact only the lower portion of the wall; the upper portion, including the Tour de Forgeur, was razed in 1826 in order to improve the visibility of the Cathedral.

Château de Saumur

The Chateau was built in the late 12th century by Henry II of England (1170-1183). It replaced the ruins of a previous chateau which had been built by Count Theobald I of Blois in the 10th century to protect the town and Benedictine Abbey from Norman raids, but was burned in 1026 as part of the Capet-aligned Count Fulk III of Anjou's warfare against the neighboring Carolingian-aligned Count Odo II of Blois, then again in 1067 by Count Fulk IV of Anjou. The castle was captured in 1203 by King Philip as part of his campaigns against Normandy and Anjou, and was further fortified with an outer curtain wall, then further upgraded by Louis I of Anjou during the Hundred Years' War.

Following the French Revolution, the castle was ransacked and heavily damaged by the Catholic and Royal Army of Vendée, but escaped demolition when Napoleon decided to make it a state prison. It then was taken over by the city of Saumur in 1912 as a town museum. The castle was again heavily damaged during WWII when German artillery indiscriminately bombarded Saumur, but was fully restored starting in 1997 and once again houses the local museum.

Musée des Blindés

The Musée des Blindés was founded in 1977 by Colonel Michel Aubry and has since grown into the world's largest armored vehicle collection. The order of sections for this is a little unusual, but follows the physical layout of the museum.

Exterior

Entrance

World War I

The Schneider CA1 and Char Saint-Chamond are each the only surviving example of their respective types left in the world. Both have been painstakingly restored to operational condition, making them the oldest and second-oldest functional tanks in the world.

World War II - Germany

The Musée de Blindes' collection of WWII German armored fighting vehicles is one of the most complete in the world. Of particular note here are the Luchs which is one of only two remaining examples, the Tiger I which is one of nine remaining, and the Tiger II which is the only operable example (and one of eight remaining).

Tanks

Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E "221" (Sd.Kfz. 181)

The Musée's Tiger is #114 of the 1st Company SS-Panzerabteilung 102, but painted as #221 by request of Col. Aubry as that was the first Tiger he encountered in battle. It was abandoned on 19 August 1944 after the crew accidentally rammed another Tiger tank during the retreat from the Falaise Pocket, disabling both. It is a complete vehicle, but currently disassembled for comprehensive restoration.

Tank Destroyers

The Musée's Jagdpanzer G-13 is the only known surviving example of this specific model, which is a post-WWII Swiss variant of the Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer fitted with the more powerful StuK 40 75mm gun.

Anti-Tank Guns

Artillery

Other

Espace Réesistance

France 1940

The AMR 33 and FCM 36 in this collection are the only surviving examples of their respective models in the world.

Warsaw Pact

World War II - Allies

Great Britain

Soviet Union

United States of America

Contemporary France

Tanks

Wheeled AFVs

Other

Allee des Grands Hommes

Contemporary World

Centrale Nucléaire de Chinon

The Centrale Nucléaire de Chinon was France's first commercial nuclear power plant, housing three first generation Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz (UNGG) type gas cooled reactors of 70 MW, 210 MW, and 480 MW output respectively. The relatively small A1 reactor operated only from 1964 to 1973, while A2 operated from 1965 to 1985 and A3 operated from 1966 to 1990. These were followed by the four current 900 MW CP2 pressurized-water reactors, B1 through B4, which came online in 1984, 1984, 1897, and 1988.

The Musée de l'Atome à Chinon museum is housed in the deactivated A1 reactor of the Centrale Nucléaire de Chinon power plant, which is an incredibly distinctive giant sphere 47 metres in diameter. Unfortunately, access is currently restricted to guided group tours.

Le Domaine Nationale de Chambord

The Domaine Nationale de Chambord is a national park established on the estate of the Château de Chambord. It is the largest enclosed park in Europe, consisting of an area of 5440 hectares of old-growth oak forest ringed by a 2.5 metre high wall which was constructed from 1542 to 1645. Due to the combination of the fully preserved perimeter wall and the lack of any nearby settlements whose growth would have encroached on it, Chambord is the only historic estate in France which has never been reduced in size.

The Château itself is located on the southern bank of the Cosson River, a small tributary of the Loire. The original intent was to divert the river to completely surround the chateau as an artificial island, but this was ultimately deemed impractical and the river was instead routed along an elbow-shaped canal along the north and west sides of the formal gardens. Two smaller canals draw a portion of the river's flow into a moat lying between the gardens and the outer walls of the Château, then return it on the opposite side.

Le Château de Chambord

The Château de Chambord is the largest and most famous of over 300 châteaux located in the Loire River valley of France. The majority of these châteaux were built between the end of the Hundred Years' War and the construction of Versailles, as the kings of that period made the "garden of France" region their preferred residence and the nobility naturally followed. However, Chambord is unique in being designed for the sole purpose of being a showpiece royal hunting lodge; its very grandeur makes it literally uninhabitable beyond short stays during the spring and autumn, as it is impossible to adequately heat or cool in anything beyond the mildest weather. Moreoover, there is no source of food within the estate; the forest is artificially stocked with game animals but what little farmland existed in the area was razed to clear the estate.

The grandiose impracticality of Chambord extends to every aspect of its architectural design. Despite reaching a towering height of 56 metres at the central lantern spire, the Château's keep and the rear half of ts curtain wall are only three stories high, while the front of the curtain wall is one story high. The center spire continues upwards for the equivalent of another three stories and is surrounded by a dense array of small one and two-story towers intended to resemble the skyline of Constantinople, but only the spire is actually part of the core building. The rest are seperate structures laid on top of the flat roof of the keep.

King Francis spent a total of about fifty days at Chambord, and the estate was then all but abandoned until the era of Louis XIII, who gifted it to his brother Gaston d'Orleans. Gaston spent a fortune restoring the castle and altering its interior to be somewhat more practically usable. These modifications made it possible for Louis XIV to brring his royal court for nine extended visits between 1660 and 1685, although he never bothered with it again once the Palais de Versailles was complete. During the Bourbon Restoration period, Chambord was given as a birth gift to Duke Henri of Bordeaux, the last male line descendant of King Louis XV. It was the only major property which Henri was permitted to retain ownership of after being exiled from France following the July Revolution, and then was confiscated from his Austrian heirs by the French government in 1915.

Exterior

Courtyard

The courtyard between the outer wall and the inner keep is an empty space which serves only to provide spacing between the two.

Keep

Ground Floor

The ground floor of the keep retains the original interior layout of two perpendicular hallways dividing four identical suites. Each of the four suites consists of a massive 18 metre by 9 metre bedchamber flanked by two smaller rooms, plus attached servant quarters extending into the adjacent towers. At the center where the hallways cross each other is the famous "double helix" spiral staircase, which extends all the way to the roof of the keep.

First Floor

The first floor of the keep was extensively remodeled to accomodate state apartments for the King and Queen, which together take up both of the original suites on the north side plus the west, north, and east hallway segments (which were walled off to create additional rooms) and one of the adjacent towers. The king's apartment consisted of nine rooms, including a guard room, first antechamber with two storage rooms, second antechamber, parade chamber (formal bedroom), and three private rooms for the King's use. The queen's apartment consisted of an antechamber, two private rooms, and a bedchamber.

In 1782, Louis XVI granted the Château to the office of the Royal Stud. After this the state apartments were reduced in size for the use of royal guests, and a governor's apartment was added in the west tower. The addition of parquet flooring, wood panelling, reduced-height false ceilings, and numerous ceramic heating stoves during this final round of renovations made the Château ((marginally) usable as a year-round permanent residence.

Second Floor

Like the ground floor, the second floor retains its original layout; the primary visible difference is the elaborately carved curved stone roof above as opposed to heavy wooden beams supporting another structural floor.

Roof

Église Saint-Louis de Chambord

The Église Saint-Louis de Chambord is located just to the west of the Chateau, with the small mairie of Chambord next to it. It was built in 1666 at the insistence of King Louis XIV.

Place de Martroi

The Place de Martroi is the primary public square in the city center of Orléans. It is centered around La Pucelle d'Orléans, an enormous (4.4 metre) bronze equestrian statue of Jehanne d'Arc.

Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans

The present-day cathedral of Orleans was built from 1601 to 1829 as the fourth reconstruction of the original church built here by Saint Euverte, Bishop of Orleans in the 4^th century. The original church was replaced by a 5^th century basililca, which was destroyed by a city-wide fire in the 10^th century; the subsequent Roman-style cathedral partially collapsed in the late 13^th century due to inadequate foundations and was rebuilt into a Gothic cathedral, which was completed in 1530 but then severely damaged less than forty years later during the French Wars of Religion.

Roman Wall

A surviving portion of the original Roman city wall of Aurelianorum is visible just to the north of the cathedral. Additional remnants of this wall exist along the nearby Rue de la Tour Neuve, but are only brief fragments.

Hôtel Groslot

The Hôtel Groslot was built in 1549-1558 as the grand residence of Jacques Groslot, the royal bailiff of Orleans. King Francois II stayed here from October 1560 until his death the following December, as one of the duties of the bailiff was to house the King whenever he chose to visit a town lacking a royal palace. In this case, the royal visit was certainly unwelcome (yet could not be refused) since the elder Groslot had passed away prior to the completion of the mansion and his son Jerome was known to be a fervent Protestant. The Hôtel was later purchased by the town and used as its city hall, and the modern-day replacement Hôtel de Ville is directly across thhe street from it. The "wedding room" of the city era is the former bedroom in which Francois II passed, directly adjacent to the mayor's office.

Loire River

Orléans is strategically placed at the northmost point of the Loire, where the river turns from its northward course to flow west to reach the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic coast of France. Historically, a complex series of dikes and dredges maintained the channel of the river at a depth sufficient for navigation all the way to Orléans. However, ocean vessels grew beyond the size which could be accomodated and the port of Orléans diminished in importance as Nantes became the head of navigation.