Orléans

Orléans once had the biggest inferiority complex this side of Newark, New Jersey. The city paled pitifully in comparison with other cities of central France, so the townsfolk clung to the city's finest moment—the coming of la pucelle d'Orléans (the Maid of Orleans), Joan of Arc, in 1429 to liberate the city from the English during the Hundred Years' War. There's little left from Joan's time, but the city is festooned with everything from her equestrian monument to a Jeanne d'Arc Dry Cleaners. Today, however, Orléans is a thriving commercial city, and wonderfully sensitive urban renewal has added enormous charm, especially to the medieval streets between the Loire and the cathedral.

The story of the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc, and the Siege of Orléans is widely known. In 1429 France had hit rock bottom. The English and their Burgundian allies were carving up the kingdom. Besieged by the English, Orléans was one of the last towns about to yield, when a young Lorraine peasant girl, Joan of Arc, arrived to rally the troops and save the kingdom. During the Wars of Religion (1562-98), much of the cathedral was destroyed. A century ago ham-fisted town planners razed many of the city's fine old buildings. Both German and Allied bombs helped finish the job during World War II.