And affordable work for the general public curious about the history of Orléans and where students and teachers will find useful information. There are treated pell-mell, the birth of the citythe importance of LoireOrléans, royal city, Joan of Arc liberating Orléans through the Bourgogne gate, the religious life intense, the students coming from far away, sometimes even from abroad, from Germany for example, theevolution of the city and neighborhoods…
We also learn that “ May 2, 1843, is a historic day for France and even more so for Orléans. For the people of Orléans, it is a day of celebration. We celebrate the inauguration of the terminus station of the Paris-Orléans railway line, the first in France with a distance greater than 100 kilometers “. What followed was the rapid decline of the Loire navy… and the vinegar factories: the Saintoin house converted to the production of chocolate, creating, in 1833, a factory on rue de Bourgogne. Four large canneries share the market, including Maingourd, which employed four hundred workers between the wars.
In 1856, Orléans suffered a major flood: “ The level of the Loire exceeds seven meters in Orléans. The plant garden in Saint-Marceau is under water, as is Avenue Dauphine, the market gardeners are losing all their vegetables… »
Then, in 1870, the state set up a tobacco factory where 280 women made up the majority of the staff.
During the Belle Époque, the people of Orléan had fun: cinema; shows often inspired by Parisian entertainment or stopping during their tours (circus, operettas, operas, café chantant, etc.); nightclubs, dance halls with Dance Marathon… At the same time, cultural, literary and artistic life is not left out! Maurice Genevoix created the Society of Orléanais Artists, which today became Les artistes orléanais. Two literary magazines intend to promote Loire art… We play sports, we learn to swim in particular and we bathe in the Loire… We see the district of La Source emerging from the ground and, despite the difficulties, organizing itself into a place of life… with the creation of the hospital, the university and numerous jobs linked to the influx of employees transferred from Paris to La Source (postal checks, CNRS, etc.). However Henri Blanquet, journalist at La République du Center, writes in his investigation into life in this neighborhood: “ A new town can have 10,000 inhabitants and still need a soul… »
This book is full of information, which it is impossible to summarize here, helping us to understand how the Orléans of today was formed. It’s exciting and enriching. If you like Orléans and want to know our regional capital better, take the time to read it, you will learn a lot!
