Blois is a French commune, capital of the department of
Loir-et-Cher in the Center-Val de Loire region. Blois is also the
most populous municipality in the department.
In the 2014
census, the town had 46,351 inhabitants. The urban community of
Blois has approximately 104,604 inhabitants and the urban area of
Blois has 125,994 inhabitants, making it the 66th largest in France.
It is the first town in the department of Loir-et-Cher and the
fourth in the Center region behind Tours, the regional capital of
Orleans and Bourges, and ahead of Châteauroux and Chartres.
Its inhabitants are called the Blésois.
It was under Louis
XII, and for about a century, a royal residence. The city has an
important cultural heritage with its castle, the Saint-Louis
cathedral and two important churches.
Château de Blois/ Blois Castle
The royal castle of Blois,
located in the department of Loir-et-Cher, is one of the castles of
the Loire. It was the favorite residence of the kings of France
during the Renaissance. Located in the heart of the city of Blois,
on the right bank of the Loire, the royal castle of Blois brings
together around a same courtyard a panorama of French architecture
from the Middle Ages to the classical period which makes it a key
building for understanding the evolution of architecture over the
centuries. The restored royal apartments are furnished and adorned
with nineteenth-century polychrome decorations, created by Félix
Duban in the tradition of the contemporary restorers of
Viollet-le-Duc.
Saint-Louis Cathedral of Blois
The Saint-Louis de Blois
Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, located in Blois in the
Loir-et-Cher department. It has been classified as a historical
monument since August 9, 1906. It is the seat of the bishopric of
Blois, erected in 1697 by a bull from Pope Innocent XII. The
territory of the diocese of Blois was taken from that of Chartres.
House of magic
The Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin, is a
museum specializing in illusion and conjuring located in Blois in
the department of Loir-et-Cher in the Center-Val de Loire region.
The museum has the Musée de France label and pays homage to
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, a French illusionist born in Blois at the
beginning of the 19th century.
The Robert-Houdin House of
Magic was inaugurated in 1998; the museum showcases the life and
multiple works of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, famous illusionist,
inventor, watchmaker and constructor of French automata born in
Blois under the First Empire in 1805.
The city of Blois
bought the Maison Massé, a large bourgeois house built in 1856 and
located opposite the castle, to present the private collection of
the illusionist given to the city in 1981 by Paul Robert Houdin, his
grandson, who had opened a private museum there. This collection is
gradually enriched.
Magical art collections and posters
provide insight into the history of magic.
The museum is
certified Musée de France; it is the only public museum in Europe to
present in the same place collections of magic and a permanent live
show.
Every half hour, the facade of the house overlooking
the square of the castle of Blois comes alive with dragons emerging
from the windows.
The museum is located in the city center of
Blois, at 1 Place du Château.
The neighboring municipalities are Fossé, Chailles, La
Chaussée-Saint-Victor, Saint-Gervais-la-Forêt,
Saint-Sulpice-de-Pommeray, Villebarou, Vineuil, Valencisse,
Valloire-sur-Cisse, Chambon-sur-Cisse, Chouzy-sur-Cisse and Valencisse.
The city is located on the Loire, halfway between Tours and Orleans.
Stretching on both banks of the last wild river in Europe, it delimits
and unites the Petite Beauce (right / north bank) and the Sologne (left
/ south bank). The city of Blois is the heart of the agglomeration
community of Agglopolys which includes 43 municipalities.
Geology, topography and hydrography
The city of Blois is centered on
the confluence of the Loire River with the Arrou, a modest stream, today
almost completely arched or bused. This confluence delimits a promontory
on which the castle is located.
The lower town is located on the
recent alluvium of the major bed between river and hillside (average
altitude: 70 m). The upper town is anchored in the limestone slopes of
the Loire and the Arrou or placed on the plateau of the Petite Beauce
(100 to 110 m) constituted by the same rock. The forest is located on a
very thin layer of silt from the plateaus which covers the flint clay,
an impermeable layer.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the altered oceanic
climate type, according to a CNRS study based on a series of data
covering the period 1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a
typology of the climates of metropolitan France in which the
municipality is still exposed to an altered oceanic climate and is in
the Middle climatic region Loire Valley, characterized by good
insolation (1,850 h / year) and a little rainy summer.
For the
period 1971-2000, the average annual temperature is 11.4 ° C, with an
annual thermal amplitude of 14.6 ° C. The average annual cumulative
rainfall is 645 mm, with 10.5 days of precipitation in January and 6.9
days in July. For the period 1991-2020, the annual average temperature
observed on the nearest Météo-France meteorological station, in the town
of Cheverny 14 km as the crow flies, is 11.8 ° C and the average annual
cumulative rainfall is 675.8 mm. For the future, the climate parameters
of the municipality estimated for 2050 according to different greenhouse
gas emission scenarios can be consulted on a dedicated website published
by Météo-France in November 2022
Road infrastructure
There is a junction of the A10 motorway
(Paris-Bordeaux) (also E60 and E5 in Blois), passing to the north of the
city and located in the town of Saint-Denis-sur-Loire, constituting exit
No. 17. A second one is envisaged further west to unload the first one.
The city is crossed on a south-west - north-east axis by the former RN
152 (Fontainebleau-Saumur), today downgraded to RD 2152 to the east of
the city and RD 952 to the west. Other major departmental roads cross
the city: the RD 956 (Blois-Châteauroux, ex-RN 156) which is in 2 x 2
lanes and bypasses the city, the ex-RN 751 (Nantes-Gien), downgraded to
RD 951 to the east of the city and RD 751 to the west as well as the RD
924 (Châteaudun-Blois) ex-RN 824.
Public transport
The city of
Blois has a public public transport network governed by the
agglomeration community of Blois (Agglopolys), called Azalys. The
operation of the network has been delegated to Keolis Blois, a
subsidiary of Keolis (SNCF group). The network has nine main bus lines20
and 45 secondary and school lines. In addition to this, there are the
City Center Shuttles, two loops running through the city center with a
frequency of 20 minutes from Monday to Saturday. These shuttles are free
and accessible to people with reduced mobility. The connection with the
Blois-Chambord Station is ensured by all the main lines (shuttles
included) at the Bus Station stop, also allowing the Azalys network to
be connected to the lines of the Rémi departmental coaches and
constituting a multimodal interchange hub.
Railway infrastructure
Blois-Chambord station is located on the line from Paris-Austerlitz to
Bordeaux-Saint-Jean. It is served by TER Centre-Val de Loire trains
running between Paris-Austerlitz or Orléans and Tours, Interloire trains
between Orléans and Le Croisic, or even more recently Intercités Ouigo
trains on the Paris-Nantes line.
Gentle circulation
The
EuroVelo 6 or EV6, also known as the "Eurovéléroute des Fleuves", is a
EuroVelo-type cycle route that crosses Blois by connecting Saint-Nazaire
to Constanța. It is the most famous European cycle route, 3,653 km long,
it crosses Europe from west to east, from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Black Sea via ten countries. It follows the route of three of the
largest European rivers: the Loire, the Rhine and the Danube.
The
Azalys network offers an electrically assisted bicycle rental service to
the inhabitants of Agglopolys. This is a long-term rental system
proposed to promote the practice of cycling in the agglomeration of
Blois. Subscriptions are subscribed for a minimum period of one month,
three months or one year renewable and Azalys subscribers have
discounts.
Since the summer of 2022, the municipality has set up
a network of self-service electric scooters managed by the Bird company.
Since the early 2010s, archaeological excavations conducted by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have shown that Blois-Vienne was occupied by hunter-gatherers as early as 6,000 years before our era (so 8,000 years ago). Traps have also been found, meaning that these communities could, in addition to agriculture and livestock, fish.
From the fourth to the first century: Blois under the Gauls
Other
excavations have shown the presence of Gauls, of the Carnute tribe, from
the fourth century BC, also in Vienna. Other villages then seemed to
already exist even before the arrival of the Romans, such as Camboritu
(in Gaul: "ford of the meander").
From the first to the fifth
century: Blois under the Romans
Like the rest of Gallia, the pagus
blesensi was conquered by the Romans in the first century before our
era, and is therefore administratively attached to the oppidum of
Autricum (current Chartres), within the province of Gallia Lugdunensis
IV. The invasion of the Romans around -52 BC means the beginning of the
administration and written records, although rare, in opposition to the
oral tradition of the Gauls.
At that time, the pagus came down to
the surroundings of Blesum, then surrounded by many natural obstacles:
the Blémars forest to the west, the Sylva longa to the east, and the
Secalaunia to the south, not to mention the Liger which crosses it.
Blesum was thus a small town developing around a fortress built by the
Romans, the Castrum Blesense, at the top of the spur of the current
castle. The city, connected to the Carnute country by the Belsa plain by
the Via Iulius Caesaris (between Autricum and Blesum), is then located
at the crossroads of the Via Turonensis (connecting Lutetia to Burdigala
and Asseconia along the Liger), the Via Festi (between Blesum and
Avaricum), and the Blois-Luynes way through Secalaunia (between Blesum
and Malliagense). Ironically, a community not adhering to the Empire is
formed at the level of Blesum, on the left bank of the Liger, in Vienna.
In Blesum, two Roman temples would have sat in the city: one
dedicated to Jupiter on the site of the abbey of Bourg-Moyen, and a
second dedicated to Mercury near the current Augustin-Thierry high
school.
In the fifth century: Blois under the Bretons
In the
year 410, the Breton leader Ivomadus would have conquered the pagi of
Blois and Chartres by defeating the consul in place, a certain Odo,
probably of Germanic origin. He would then have established an
independent state, the Kingdom of Blois, within the Empire itself, under
a Flavius Honorius already weakened by the barbarian raids in Paris.
This entity, little known to historians, seemed to remain independent
for almost a century, resisting the invasion of the Visigothic kingdom
of Toulouse, but was finally conquered by the Frankish king Clovis,
between 481 and 491, or in 497.
From the sixth to the tenth century: Blois under the Franks
A
first Frankish county was thus created, but very few traces have reached
contemporary historians.
The most notable traces nevertheless
date back to the ninth century with the creation in 832 of the title of
Count of Blois by King Louis I, said the Pious and son of Charlemagne,
in favor of William of Orleans, the Constable. Due to lack of
descendants, the county passed into the hands of the most important
figures of the time, including Robert the Strong, kings Robert I and
Eudes, up to Hugh the Great.
The city was sacked by Viking raids
successively in 854, in 856 (or 857) and in 868 by the men of Hasting.
From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries: Blois under the
Thibaldian counts
The county of Blois did not stand out until the
following century, when Thibaud the Cheater became an independent count
under the suzerainty of Hugh the Great. The new county command including
Blois, Chartres and Châteaudun.
His descendants, the
"Thibaldians", remained the lords of the city until the incorporation of
the county of Blois within the royal domain in 1397. The House of Blois
has meanwhile managed to raise some of these members or these
descendants in the highest strata of the European nobility, by acceding
in particular to the thrones of France, England, Spain and Portugal<.
Thus, Blois is in the Middle Ages the seat of a powerful county whose
dynasty also owns Champagne before ascending to the throne of Navarre.
In 1171, Blois was one of the first cities in Europe to accuse its
Jews of ritual crimes following the unexplained disappearance of a
Christian child. Thirty to thirty-five Jews (out of a community of about
130 people) were burned alive on May 26, 1171 (the 20th of Sivan 4931 of
the Hebrew calendar) near the fourches patibulares, by Count Thibaut V
of Blois. This accusation leads to others in Pontoise, Joinville and
Loches. The martyrdom of Blois made a considerable impression on
contemporaries. In addition to two prose narratives of the events,
Seli'hot are composed. Learning of the tragic events in Blois, Rabbenu
Tam declares the 20th of Sivan, a fasting day for the Jews of France,
Great Britain and Germany.
At this time, the religious field is
important. In the twelfth century, five parishes stand out :
In the
center, the abbey of Notre-Dame de Bourg-Moyen, now disappeared,
To
the east, the Romanesque church of Saint-Solenne.
To the west, on the
site of the Saint-Nicolas church, was the abbey church of Saint-Laumer,
also Romanesque.
In the north, the Saint-Honoré parish and its church
existed in 1154. The church was sold in 1792 and then destroyed. It is
now the Place Saint-Honoré.
To the south of the Loire stands the
Saint-Saturnin church on the site of the old Romanesque church of the
time. This parish on the left bank, however, constitutes an independent
part of Blois until 1606.
Of these Romanesque churches, only a
few vestiges of Saint-Solenne (current Saint-Louis Cathedral) remain.
At the same time, it is the rise of monasteries, the monastery of
Saint-Laumer whose church is mentioned above and the abbey of
Bourg-Moyen of which nothing remains (except the odonym rue du Bourg
Moyen). These two monastic foundations house relics and thus attract
pilgrims.
The Châtillon family, who took over for more than a
century, continued the religious projects. In particular, under John I
of Blois-Châtillon who built around 1238, at the foot of the castle, the
church of Saint-Martin-aux-Choux which was destroyed during the
Revolution. John I also encourages the coming of mendicant orders. He
founded in 1233 the convent of the Cordeliers which was located in the
current rue des Cordeliers and in 1273 the convent of the Jacobins where
the natural history museum is now located.
It is also from the
second half of the thirteenth century that the city is surrounded by
walls. The rampart of Blois was irregular and effective for three
centuries, until the end of the sixteenth century. Only a few towers
remain today (such as those of Foix, Cordeliers, in particular) and
odonyms (with the streets Porte Côté, Porte Bastille, Porte Chartraine).
The rivalry between the Counts of Blois and Anjou, which appeared at
the end of the tenth century, will be decisive during the Hundred Years'
War. Between 1356 and 1380, the city is surrounded by the English and
more particularly the Black Prince, son of King Edward III who descends
from the Counts of Anjou, with Bury and Fougères-sur-Bièvre occupied.
Nevertheless, in 1391, the county of Blois was sold by the Châtillon
family, direct heir of Thibaud I but now riddled with debts and without
descendants, in favor of the royal family, in this case Duke Louis I of
Orleans, younger son of King Charles V the Wise (and first cousin of Guy
II of Blois-Châtillon). Blois thus arrives in the royal domain, and the
dukes of Orleans settle in the castle.
Son of Duke Louis I,
Charles of Orleans was nevertheless taken prisoner in 1415 following the
Battle of Azincourt, and would not be released until 1444. His interim
was provided by his brother batard, Jean de Dunois, then lord of
Romorantin and Millançay, who protected Blois while the city was
encircled again by the English. He became a companion in arms of Joan of
Arc, who herself stayed in Blois to refuel at the end of April 1429.
Between April 25 and 26, 1429, the Maid had her standard blessed within
the collegiate church of Saint-Sauveur. Once the army of 500 men had
arrived as promised by Charles VII, on April 27, Jeanne crossed the
Saint-Louis bridge before going to liberate Orleans, then occupied by
the English, from the left bank of the Loire.
On his return, Duke
Charles endeavored to gather in Blois many artists, rejected as a whole
from the court of Louis XI.
In 1498, King Charles VIII died in Amboise. Duke Louis II of Orleans,
grandson of Louis I, then established in Blois, went to Amboise and was
crowned king there under the name of Louis XII. The Blésois king decides
to set up his court in his hometown. During his reign, the city was
transformed durably. The development of the castle intervenes in the
middle of the Renaissance, and dozens of mansions are built for the
Grandees of the court. One of the most ambitious is perhaps the Hotel
d'Alluye (rue Saint-Honoré), faithfully reproducing an Italian palace,
built for Florimond Robertet, very important minister of Charles VIII,
Louis XII then François I.
In 1526, Francis I manifested the
desire to return to Paris. In 1539, the removal of furniture and
tapestries from the castle of Blois confirms this decision. But, at the
time of the wars of religion, Catherine de Medici and her sons took
refuge there in an attempt to restore the weakened royal power.
On July 4, 1562, like Beaugency, the city of Blois, conquered by the
Protestants some time before, was taken and plundered, but by the
Catholics of the Marshal of Saint-André, and, just like in Beaugency,
the women were raped.
On February 7, 1568, Captain Boucard's
Protestants plundered and burned the city, raping and killing the
Catholics. Cordeliers are thrown into the well of their convent. The
churches are ruined.
The States General of 1588-1589 meet in
Blois, where King Henry III took refuge following the Barricades Day
(1588). On December 23, 1588, Henry III assassinates the Duke of Guise
in his castle of Blois. And the next day, his brother, the Cardinal of
Guise, suffers the same fate.
After the departure of the kings to
Paris, Blois lost its character as a royal residence, with the pomp and
economic activity that accompanied the court. Henry IV transferred the
rich library of Blaise to Fontainebleau.
After serving as a royal
residence, Blois serves as a place of exile for unwanted members of the
royal family. In 1617, Louis XIII decided to exercise royal power and he
exiled his mother, Marie de Medici, to Blois. In the religious field,
the Counter-Reformation installed the Jesuit order in Blois in 1622 who
built a Saint-Louis chapel that has now become the Saint-Vincent de Paul
church in Blois.
Then, in 1634, Louis XIII exiles his brother Gaston d'Orléans to
Blois who attaches himself to the city. He founded in 1657 the General
Hospital or "hospice of Vienna" which during the nineteenth century
takes its current form, the Gaston d'Orléans retirement home. He also
partly financed the reconstruction of the Hôtel-Dieu and remained in
Blois until his death.
In the meantime, Blois became famous for
the many craftsmen, in particular watchmakers and goldsmiths, who
carried out their activity there. Alexandre Péan86, affirming that:
"Blois, under the Valois, was an active center of industry such, and
even more perhaps, that Geneva and Besançon are today," quotes Georges
Touchard-Lafosse :
"Watchmaking [...] maintained a great source of
wealth there: we do not know what was, in the time of Gaston d'Orléans
(1608-1660), the number of watchmakers manufacturers established in this
city [47 in 1639, according to the footnote] -- but in 1670 there were
still 38 with the title of master, which gives reason to assume that the
workers attached to their factories were numerous... At a time when the
presence of the great contributed so powerfully to giving rise to social
life, it was seen to wither in the places where these eminent characters
by birth had fertilized it, as soon as they moved away from it. Blois,
under the Duke of Orleans, had recovered, in large part, the prosperity
formerly due to the court of Louis XII; but when Gaston had ceased to
live, almost all the nobles, scholars, artists who surrounded this
prince, left the city to move closer to Saint-Germain. [...] The Wheat
industry and the trade it fed declined again... Finally, the revocation
of the edict of Nantes appeared, which dealt them the last blow...
In 1686, that is to say in the following year, there were only 17
masters of watchmaking in Blois. At the time of writing, there are 7 to
8 watch and clock dealers on this former home of an important
manufacture, and not a single one of them manufactures the slightest
object. »
Péan also cites the History of Blois (1846), of
Alexandre Dupré (1815-1896) and Louis-Catherine Bergevin further on:
"The frequent stays of the court in Blois gave the commerce of this city
a passing radiance. This influence was particularly felt on the luxury
arts. Watchmaking was successfully cultivated in the city and the
surrounding area; the beautiful courages of the Cupers, the Lemons, the
Chaisnons, the Mâcés, the Roberts, enjoyed a European reputation. -- In
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, watchmaking and enamel pieces
were part of the town presents intended for princes and lords who came
to Blois. Thus, in 1645, the aldermen were authorized to have Sieur
Morlière make a boiste plate with enamels with characters and figures,
to give to Madame the Duchess of Orleans, wife of Gaston. The choice of
these objects proves that their manufacture was then a flourishing
branch of industry, and that they were with honor among the products of
the locality.
[...] At the time of the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes (1685), several Protestant families left the city of Blois and
left the kingdom to freely exercise their religion. Others remained in
abjuration: such were the Baschets, the Baignoux, the Cupers, whose
descendants still inhabit the city where their fathers professed
Calvinism. [...] »
Finally, Péan quotes the Abstract of the
History of Blois by Louis de La Saussaye: "Watchmaking, at the point
where it had arrived in Blois in the seventeenth century, can be
considered as the field of art, and that the Cuper family held an
honorable rank there for more than three centuries. »
A list of
watchmakers (and goldsmiths) mentions a certain number of Blois families
often linked by marriages, some members passing from one profession to
another. Other professions also had to gather around their workshops:
miniaturists painters to adorn watch cases, enamelmakers, etc. Moreover,
there is still a street of goldsmiths in the center of Blois.
After the death of Gaston d'Orléans in 1660, the castle of Blois,
stripped by Louis XIV, is meanwhile abandoned, to the point that Louis
XVI plans to destroy it in 1788. He is saved by the installation within
its walls of the Royal-Comtois regiment.
It was during the reign
of Louis XIV that Blois became a bishopric. David Nicolas de Bertier,
first bishop of Blois, chooses as the future cathedral the
Sainte-Solenne church destroyed by a storm and which has just been
rebuilt thanks to the intervention of Marie Charron, a native of Blois
and wife of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Near the cathedral completed in 1700,
the new bishop installed an episcopal palace, whose architect was
Jacques Gabriel, on a hillside overlooking the Loire. The development of
the terraced gardens begins after 1703 and lasts almost fifty years. The
gardens were opened to the public in 1791 under the aegis of Abbot Henri
Grégoire, constitutional bishop of Blois.
On the night of
February 6 to 7, 1716, the medieval bridge gave way under the pressure
of a debacle of the river. The construction of a new building was
ordered the following summer by Duke Philippe of Orleans from his
brother Louis XIV. The work was carried out by the architect of the
court, Jacques Gabriel. The bridge that bears his name since was
inaugurated in 1724.
Blois under the Revolution and the First Empire
Despite a major
flood of the Loire at the dawn of the Revolution, in January 1789, which
notably contributed to a loss of crops that year, Blois contributed
relatively little to the events leading up to the capture of the
Bastille in July 1789. Abbé Grégoire, representing the Blésois clergy
during the Jeu de Paume oath, contributed to the first abolition of
slavery in the French colonies and on metropolitan territory, but
Napoleon Bonaparte would later repeal it.
In 1790, the province
of Orléanais was dismantled and the department of Loir-et-Cher was
created, with Blois as its capital.
In 1792 and 1793, the
Revolutionaries voted to destroy the royal emblems at the castle and on
other monuments, such as the old town hall, as well as five churches
(namely the Saint-Martin-aux-Choux church, the Saint-Sauveur collegiate
church, the old Saint-Nicolas church, the Saint-Lubin church and the
Saint-Honoré parish).
The historian Louis de La Saussaye reports
that the plane trees of the current mail Pierre Sudreau were planted
during this period, in 1797, to replace abalone slaughtered in 1793.
In 1814, the Empress, Marie-Louise of Austria, took refuge in Blois
at the time of her second regency.
The nineteenth century is the time of modernity for the city of
Blois. First of all, the railway arrived on the plateau in 1846 with the
opening of the Paris-Orléans-Tours line, of which Blois station was one
of the stops.
It is also the time of urban planning thanks to the
works that are carried out between 1850 and 1870 under the successive
mandates of the mayor, Eugene Riffault, a friend of Baron Haussmann of
Paris. He connects, by a boulevard bearing his name, the modern upper
town with the prefecture, the courthouse, the grain hall and the lower
medieval town. He also connects the upper district of the station and
the Poulain factory, and the lower district of the Loire docks by the
Boulevard de l'est today the boulevard Daniel Dupuis.
It also
opens a large street in the axis of the Jacques-Gabriel bridge, extended
by a monumental staircase, formerly Imperial Prince Street today
Denis-Papin street which also connects with its staircase the upper city
and the lower one. Restoration work is being undertaken on the castle.
The reinforcement and the construction of dykes are also carried out in
order to protect the city against the floods of the Loire.
In the
meantime, the lower town is facing precisely the three most important
floods of the Loire, in 1846, in 1856 (the worst to date), and in 1866.
The city center and the Saint-Jean and Vienne districts are thus
flooded, as well as the Porridge weir. Since the Revolution of 1789, a
limnimeter engraved on a wall of the dike at the edge of the bridge
traces the greatest floods.
It is also the time of
industrialization with the installation in 1862 by Victor-Auguste
Poulain of his chocolate factory, strategically located near the
station.
Finally, the nineteenth century marks the end of
commercial navigation on the Loire, which had hitherto developed well,
especially at La Creusille, too fiercely competed by the railway.
On January 28, 1871, the battle of the suburb of Vienna took place:
Lieutenant Georges de Villebois-Mareuil liberated the city occupied by
the Prussians since December 13, 1870. A memorial monument located on
Avenue Wilson at the start of the raising of Acacias recalls the assault
on the suburb of Vienna by generals Pourcet and Chabron. He wears a
bronze plaque engraved by Oscar Roty with the inscription PATRIA NON
IMMEMOR "The Motherland does not forget". Two local odonyms (street and
impasse du 28-Janvier) also recall this event.
Blois in the Belle
Epoque
Between 1910 and 1933, the city of Blois acquired a network of
5 tram lines which generously complemented the already existing
departmental networks: the TLC and the TELC.
Blois during the
interwar period
Between 1932 and 1939, the Notre-Dame-de-la-Trinité
basilica was built in concrete worthy of American basilicas.
Between January 29, 1939 and February 8, 1939, more than 3,100 Spanish
refugees, fleeing the collapse of the Spanish republic before Franco,
arrived in Loir-et-Cher. Faced with the insufficiency of the reception
structures (the stud farms of Selles-sur-Cher are in particular used),
47 villages are put to contribution, including Blois (they are housed in
the Grouëts, outside the city). The refugees, mainly women and children,
are subject to strict quarantine, vaccinated, mail is limited, supplies,
if they are not varied and cooked in French, are however assured. In the
spring and summer, the refugees are grouped together in Bois-Brûlé
(commune of Boisseau).
At the beginning of the Second World War, the city first saw a crowd
of refugees fleeing the territories invaded by Nazi Germany since May
10, 1940, in the north-west of France. The girls and children under the
age of 13 are in turn called to evacuate from the evening of June 14
(the municipal decree having been posted at 23 h). The first shells were
fired on the right bank on the 15th at 2 a.m.: the station was targeted
but it is the cemetery and the neighboring buildings that are mainly
affected. The day of the 15th saw a final crowd of refugees pass by,
most of them from Orleans, already under the Nazi yoke, and joined by
many families from Blaise. The western approaches of the bridge, in
Vienna, were affected on the morning of the 16th, as was the house of
the mayor, Émile Laurens, who succumbed in the afternoon. The station is
hit again, even though a refugee train is on the platform. On the 17th,
the bombings resumed with the destruction of the city hall. To slow down
the advance of the Nazis, who entered the city the same evening, the
10th arch of the Jacques-Gabriel bridge was destroyed the next day
around noon on the initiative of the Blésois. On the 19th, exchanges of
fire took place between the two shores, and the French forces, then in
Vienna, hit several monuments, including the Prefecture, the Court as
well as the Denis-Papin staircase. On the 20th, two days after the
conquest of the right bank (and De Gaulle's call), the soldiers were
however forced to abandon Blois-Vienne and retreat further south to
Montrichard (Romorantin had already fallen to the Nazis). On the 21st,
all able-bodied residents present in the city were requisitioned to the
kommandantur, then located in the city center (3, Porte-Côté street), in
order to restore the state of the roads of the agglomeration. On the
22nd, the armistice was signed which placed the French state in the pay
of the Third Reich and Blois north of the demarcation line. Among the
imprisoned French soldiers, the Nazis shoot 6 colonial soldiers. The
latter were buried by the locals in the Vienna cemetery.
The
German bombings to take the city between June 15 and 18, 1940, caused a
lot of damage. In addition to the buildings already mentioned, the
demolition of the hotels of Amboise and Epernon is requested to protect
the castle from the fire that consumes the entire lower town around the
Place Louis XII.
Between June 1944 and August 1944, the
Anglo-American bombings caused numerous destructions, in particular the
Christmas railway viaduct of the Blois-Romorantin line on June 11,106
and the Jacques-Gabriel bridge on the 27th. However, the German Normandy
front was only broken through once Rennes was liberated on August 5,
then Le Mans on the 8th. It was then that the Gestapo moved its
kommandantur from Blois to Cellettes, further south. Their absence
facilitated the escape of 183 prisoners to the Blois Prisonnote 5,
thanks to the audacity of Lieutenant Godineau's group, then the reunion
of the various resistance militias under the command of Colonel Valin de
la Vaissière. On the 15th, an American convoy tries to enter the city
through the forest of Blois, but they are repulsed by the Germans; in
the absence of the city of Kings, the Allies go back to Vendôme to
liberate Orleans first. The approximately 500 resistance fighters from
Blais no longer have the patience to wait for us to release them and go
on the offensive.
The fighting of the Resistance to retake the
city from the Germans also caused damage. On August 16, 1944, the city
center was liberated but the last Nazis destroyed the three central
arches of the bridge to protect their retreat on the left bank. The
exchanges of fire between the two shores have been incessant for two
weeks. Blois-Vienne ends up liberated on September 1, 1944 in the
morning.
At the end of the war, new municipal elections were
organized on a national scale. The people of Blois elected the former
school principal Charles Ruche as mayor, a week before the German
capitulations.
In total, there are 230 victims in Blois and 1,522
buildings in the city were destroyed or damaged during the Second World
War.