Wendy's Platter…travels

October 10, 2025

By our last full day in Beaugency, we were exhausted from driving, floating, and walking. I took the day to write about our exploits, Nick did a little catch-up on emails, and Tom and Tim walked into town for a last look, then had the quintessential lazy lunch in a café, in the sun, on a beautiful October day.

Through the living room wiindows is the Loire River. When the windows are open, you can see the iconic Beaugency Bridge. Note the use of the “knee” of wood used to brace the beams. If you look at the grain of the wood, you can see that it grew in the shape that you see.

While I was busy writing about châteaux and hot air balloons, I took a look around our Airbnb digs. The most stunning part was the view from the large windows. We were on the first floor but translated into American buildings, it was the second floor. So being right on a street that hugged the Loire River, meant that we didn’t see the street much (unless we looked down), just the lovely Loire. But even more importantly there was the Beaugency bridge.

The Beaugency bridge was built somewhere between the 1100s and 1300s. There seems to be a debate about exactly when. But there is no debate that there are 23 arches to the bridge and that they all don’t match. The bridge has withstood floods and battles with a few reconstructions over the 1,000 or so years it has been in existence.

It is one of the few, if not only, medieval bridges to span the Loire. Jeanne D’Arc passed over this bridge to liberate Beaugency in 1429 in the Battle of Orleans. In 1944, Major General Botho Elster of the German army surrendered 19,000 German soldiers to U.S. Generals Robert C. Macon and Otto P. Weyland with the French Resistance playing a major role in the surrender. The bridge as street creds. And it is stunning.

The stone fireplace, the hand-hewn beams. All the right things were saved in the renovation..

When I wasn’t distracted by the bridge, I was distracted by the house we were staying in. Asking our Airbnb host about the house, Stephanie revealed that the house probably dates back to 1650. The original use of the house is unknown but possibly it was for the fisherman, or perhaps a brothel, or maybe both.

Stephanie’s family lived in Beaugency and she and her husband purchased the house a dozen years ago. They took great care in the renovations, saving the hand-hewn/sawn timbers that had been the bones of the original building to give accents and beauty to the rooms. Yet the house was modern and comfortable, with just the right amount of medieval ambience. The kitchen was my favorite as it was designed by her husband, a chef who works in Paris, and vacations in Beaugency. The stove with six burners, a griddle, two smaller ovens, a large oven, and various hot surfaces that I could only guess what they could be used for, was a thing of beauty.

The chef at our restaurant has his back to the fire and faces the guests as he finishes plating the food. The spices and sauces are at his table.

Distractions aside, I managed to finish my blog in time for Tom and Tim to return from their wanderings so we could plan our last meal together. After some research, I realized that the best option was to go to Restaurant la Rotisserie des Moines (The Monks Rotisserie) which was in the Grand Hôtel de l’Abbaye, (the Grand Hotel of the Abbey) just a few hundred feet down the street from our Airbnb.

Above, Tom is quickly sending a photo of his grilled chicken off to a friend. My grilled pork tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce is as good as it looks. Nick is tasting the potato, beet, and chard gratinée that went excellently with his blood rare steak with bearnaise sauce. Our waiter kindly caught us all before we started devouring it all!

The chef cooked the food in the dining room using a grill fired by wood. All the meats, lamb, beef, and chicken, were cooked in front of us. In addition, the chef did all of the plating with sauces and herbs as we watched. It was a culinary art show. More importantly, the food was excellent.

On our short walk home, we watched the almost full moon rise above the river giving an almost Vincent Van Gogh “Starry Night” feel to our evening. The Loire Valley (I would still argue that it is NOT a valley) and the company of my nephew Tom and cousin Tim made for a unique and fun traveling experience. It will only be Nick and me for the next month. Off to Alsace!

© 2025 Wendy Platt Hill

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