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Views of France today - the surprising town of Dreux

Eternal & contemporary

Once a bastion protecting the Paris region from Norman attack, today this small town (pop. 30 000) is fascinating for its royal burial site and festivities in June and December. 

 

Add an exceptional goat-cheese farm, bucolic countryside, a Gothic church, and architecture from many epochs...

This is eternal France - with a modern surprise.

 

 

     

     

    • The mausoleum surveils the town

     

     

    View from Chapelle Royale, burial site of the Bourbons' junior branch

    The wife of guillotined Equality Philip chose this hilltop for the family graves. The view and the story begin our visit.

     

     

    • Those dukes were competent and tragic

     

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    Philip, Louis XIV's brother
    Louis-Philippe, France's last king

    A single outburst against the Sun King...

     

     

    Overthrown...
    •  Their chapel's funerary art : emotion and dignity

     

    •Art-history excursion

     

     

    • The setting of daily life: vestiges from many epochs

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    • The countryside is lovely and we go on to a medal-winning farm for goat cheese

     

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    "We bring in the hay"

     

     

    •  Festivities that are convivial and intimate

     

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    Communion of band and public

       

       

      • Contemporary surprise

       

      Faced at an exceptionally early date with the challenge of mass immigration, Dreux cut down high-rises, created three cultural centers and voted a specific budget to unify newcomers and local people. 

      •This cultural center has never been tagged, because youths painted it as kids.

       

      •During the 1995 riots, a curfew was not deemed necessary.

       

       
      Two Africans stride through town in this photo the Dreux Office of Tourism supplied.

      •As at Chantilly, we can arrange a meeting with municipal authorities.

       

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      Farm / photo found at the farm; band / Robert Adams

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