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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Charming houseboats on a quiet spot along the Moselle river. Lots of history in all directions, some Templar remains up on the hill to discover, and a bike path along the river. Perfect place to stop with the van for a couple of days! 📍Pont-à-Mousson, Moselle, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Relaxing with a beer and a book on the Moselle river after a somewhat tricky day - involving a tow truck, an emergency garage, and a new starter battery. France is amazing like this, so many beautiful, affordable, ”official”, and safe places to park up. 📍Pont-à-Mousson, Moselle, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Biked past this age-old village church with a moss-covered porch and the kind of round tower you usually see on medieval chateaux. Graves in the churchyard and bells in the tower. I wonder what stories it might tell? Easter Sunday and a rain-filled sky. 📍Unienville, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Charmed by these old signs in rural France. Wandered by this one, on the cathedral square of Troyes. Factory of the sloe, “a small, dark, purple fruit”. But also, “the apple of the eye, the beloved or cherished”. Who knows? 📍Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Houses in small villages in mid-France are cheap. And often several hundred years old! Would you take a project like this on if you had the skills….? Not sure I would! On the other hand, this village is surrounded by champagne makers…😉 📍 Bar-sur-Aube, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Yesterday I meandered on my bike in this beautiful part of the Champagne region. Lots of up and down! There’s a champagne producer or three in every tiny village, and grapes growing on all the sunny slopes. Bright yellow rapeseed on the fields. Joy! 📍Bar-sur-Aube, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

The french didn’t only rise up in 1789, they pulled together big time in WWII. And it worked! Today I was at the Charles de Gaulle museum in France. Tears in my eyes for a lot of it. The french really do get this. 📍Columbey les deux églises, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

The perfect rose window, in the cathedral in Troyes. Just beautiful with the sun shining through, the light feels like hope. 📍Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

This was once an old water-powered flour mill, built in the 11th century - and revamped many times since! It’s on a river, the water flows constantly under the floorboards where once paddles would have turned the machines to grind the flour. Evocative! 📍 Bar-sur-Aube, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Renovation project anyone?! I’m wandering in this agricultural town in the heart of the champagne district, it’s shabby and old and hardworking… I like it, it’s very real. 📍Bar-sur-Aube, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

French brocante at best! 📍 Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Tucked in here behind the huge cathedral of Troyes, is the old commanderie of the Templar Knights. The order was founded in this very town in 1129. Imagine the knights in their white surcoats riding through the town on their destriers, wearing swords and armour. 📍 Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

The medieval city of Troyes has some extraordinary stained glass windows! Here, the cathedral. Soft, colourful light streaming in from everywhere. 📍 Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

It’s hard to believe, but Joan of Arc lodged here in 1429! She was on the way to Reims, to get the french crown sorted for France. It worked, and the dauphin became Charles VII, king of France. It had been long contested by the english, as part of the hundred year war. 📍Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I’m wandering the streets of Troyes, the medieval capital of the powerful counts of Champagne. It’s relaxed: people have had their long lunch break, the shops are reopening for the afternoon, it’s school holidays. Grey and cool, and hardly a tourist in sight. So nice! 📍 Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

More beautiful wisteria, against a crumbling medieval backdrop in the back alleys of Troyes. One of the great centres of power and trade at the time of the crusades! 📍Troyes, Champagne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

It’s wisteria season here in the Loire valley! Can’t think of a nicer colour combination than the warm, light-coloured stone quarried from cliffs along the riverbank. It’s a feast of purple: the lilacs are out too, and the irises, smells wonderful when you bike by.🚴 📍 Montsoreau, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

A crumbling watch tower at Chinon, the medieval fortress where royal dramas once played out. Henry II and his wife Eleonore ran an empire that stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees. Henry imprisoned her here after she and their sons rebelled; he later died here in 1189. 📍Chinon, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

I was at the medieval fortress of Chinon yesterday. I biked up the steep cobbled road imagining how in 1429 Joan of Arc marched up the same hill. Fired up to convince the would-be king, Charles, to ride with her for the throne. He trusted her, and they did! 📍Chinon, Loire valley, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

This truly brightened my day today! Hope it can give you a lighter moment, too😊

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

The Templar knights, such a time of bravado and commitment and asset stockpiling. It seemed like nothing could bring them down, until the French king did. Just like that, in 1308, it was over. The pope tried to absolve them, with this document discovered just 25 years ago. 📍Chinon, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

I went deep into a dungeon yesterday, in the fortress of Chinon, and found this remarkable graffiti. Carved into the wall, they say, by the last of the templar knights! This was 1308, and the Templar commanders were chained here for three hideous months. End of an era. 📍Chinon, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

This is the forteresse royale de Chinon, a fort overlooking the river Vienne, just before it runs into the Loire. Eleonor of Aquitaine was jailed here by her husband king Henry II of England, Joan of Arc was here pleading with the king to march for his crown. Stories! 📍Chinon, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Walking up into the château de Saumur, on the Loire. Imagine galloping up here on your destrier, the drawbridges pulling up behind you! This part of France has been involved in wars constantly over the centuries, including the English-French hundred year war in the 1300s. 📍Saumur, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

And this is the magnificent château of Saumur, perched up on a cliff on the Loire river. So many stories! But a fun fact: it was first built around 950 by a guy called Thibauld the Trickster, the local count and lord. Nice name to have… 📍 Saumur, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

The Loire is really wide at this point! I’m at Saumur, exploring. The river has some 200 km to go before it reaches the sea - it’s just over a thousand km long in total! A couple of years back I biked from the tiny source (in the Ardèche on the massif central) to Orléans, it was much narrower then!

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Stumbled into what was once a whole underground village, really quite bizarre. Started in the 10thC as a quarry for the soft, white, tuffeau stone in the area and grew over the centuries. There was even a Rue de Commerce. Have to say it was a bit creepy. 📍Souzay-Champigny, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Selma the e-bike and I are out exploring, and look what we found! Lots of these houses, shops, garages dug into the cliffside. They call them trogdolyte dwellings, for some reason that makes me think of Shrek. Actually it just means houses built into caves in the rock. 📍Turquant, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

French kids learning history. Saw several groups while I was wandering at Fontevraud Abbey today; animated teachers and (mainly!) interested students. The Loire valley is home to so many stories, but here is one of the most remarkable women ever - Eleonor of Aquitaine. 📍Fontevraud, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Eleonore of Aquitaine, forever with a book in her hands. Biked up to Fontevraud today her to see her effigy in the chapel - alongside her husband Henry II of England and their son Richard I - yes, that Richard! The one we know as the Lionheart. 1100s at best! 📍Fontevraud l’Abbaye, Loire, France

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

It’s spring! The wisteria are out here on the Loire and they smell heavenly. Perfect match to the smooth, local stone that all the buildings around here have been made of - for centuries. It’s so easy to cut and carve that people have long built houses into the cliffs. 📍Montsoreau, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Stumbled over this little château close to my van park, and it turns out it’s the first renaissance château to have been built in France! Started in 1453, just as the hundred year war with the English ended and the king called for beautiful new palaces to celebrate 📍Montsoreau, Loire, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

I just parked up on the banks of the Loire, off-season you really can do things like this! It’s the sweet spot just now, not yet Easter, warm enough for shorts, campgrounds are starting to open, and still there are no tourists. Châteaux within biking distance! 📍Montsoreau, Loire Valley, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

I was looking for a nice quiet place to park my van for a few days on the Loire. And ended up here, in Montsoreau, a cute little village with the first renaissance château in France. 1450s or so, at the end of the 100 year war between the French and English. 📍Montsoreau, Loire Valley, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Medieval kitchens look so charming when they’re recreated, but imagine the organised chaos of feeding everyone! The wine cellar alone must have been enormous in this formidable castle, perched up on a cliff overlooking the river 📍Château de Beynac, Dordogne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

This local market hall is really old! It used to be the medieval grain hall, the measuring vats in different sizes would mean that people got the right amount of wheat, barley, rye and corn. And that the right amount of taxes were paid, in kind. Charming history! 📍Martel, Dordogne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Bookshops are called ’librairie’ in France, and this one is a real cutie. The town is perched up high on a hilltop, and was protected with walls and lookout towers and château forts back in the 1200-1300s - the wars between the french and the english were constant 📍Domme, Dordogne, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

The streets of Poitiers have been around since roman times, but now they’re putting tiny gardens into their cobblestones. With some great guerilla art! 📍Poitiers, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

I biked past this old church yesterday in a tiny village. It was first built in the 900s or so, although this facade is from the 1600s from memory. The tower was for defence, the townspeople would shelter inside during the hundred year war in the 1300s. For real! 📍 Floriac, Lot, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Started out on a bike ride and stumbled over a huge piece of history in the truffle woods of the Garonne valley 🇫🇷 open.substack.com/pub/jennyhar...

open.substack.com

The final battle of the Gauls!

There’s a tiny trickle of a creek running down this hill, and believe it not it’s one of the most historic in France.

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Way back in 1183, the young king of England died in this very house. Stumbled over the sign by mistake and looked it up! He was Henry, son of Henry II of England, the one that was married to Eleonor of Aquitaine. Father and son were at war, but it was dysentry that did him in. 📍 Martel, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Small town France on a Saturday morning. It’s market day, and everyone has come to town to buy their oysters, cheese and asparagus, and have a chitchat with their neighbours The world is full of the biggest of worries, but just here and just now it’s as it’s always been. Europe at best 📍Martel 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

French doorways in old towns are so…charming Like escaping into a parallel universe 📍Martel, Lot, France 🇫🇷

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Reposted by The van diaries

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 04/04/2025

‘More than a million of those displaced since 2021 are in Sagaing Division, where the epicentre of the earthquake was. Sagaing has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.’ Francis Wade on the aftermath of Myanmar’s earthquake, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

lrb.co.uk

Francis Wade | Myanmar after the Earthquake

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on 28 March, followed minutes later by one almost as big, was...

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

When everything in the lane is from the 1100s except the chairs and tables French people do lunch with such style! 📍Martel, Lot, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Wandering in Martel, a very cute town not far from the Dordogne. Dating back to the 1100s! There were wars here constantly over the years, mainly between the French and the English. It all started when Elinor of Aquitaine married king Henry II of England in the mid-1100s 📍Martel, Lot, France 🇫🇷

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The van diaries @jennyharlen.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Lunch with a view! 📍Château de Montfort, Dordogne

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