European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 6, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I it. F. S \ is v a. A a Vav -. I v a a \ f s. Of Ofa a w \ 1 a a a Jim Xhu. Anu i. Quot a / a a Quot a Quot i  so i a a re a ,v5? a. Pc. A tie chateau of bodies uses dhow the narrow streets of the medieval town 12 sir Pes Magazine december it i 7990some history the Loire area has been coveted throughout history violently Early on and the first construction there was of forts and other defences. A few of these structures remain such As the romanesque keep in Loches. It is believed to have been built before 1040 by foul ques Terra a count of Anjou. But most of the Early structures were razed or remodeler. Even the keep at Loches stands amid later reinforcements. The Royal residence is Down the Street out of Arrow shot. Until the 11 the Century varying parts of the Valley were controlled by the feuding Earls of Blois and  was kind of a local turf Battle. But in the next Century regal mixing and mating took the Anjou title to Henry ii in England thus making him the first of the Angevin rulers. His family later became known As the Plantagenet. Their holding of the Loire  a lot of what is France now a did t sit Well with Many frenchmen especially the powerful capets whose scions claimed the title King of the Franks. Philip ii Augustus the first Capet to Call himself King of France started grabbing territory Back in the Early 1200s. He confiscated the Loire Valley from Henry s son John Plantagenet whose Only title Quot the landless Quot must have been applied by some satiric historian. A couple of broods of capets continued fortifying the area. But they could t hold it even from fellow frenchmen. The disputes with the English had set the stage for the Hundred years War in the 14th to 15th centuries. The capets probably had too much inbreeding and other French families were jockeying for the Roya limelight. X the Valois line took dominance when Charles Vii was pushed to save the kingdom of France by the Little peasant woman Joan of arc in 1492. The room in the Royal residence in Loches where their first fateful meeting took place is open to the Public. Joan of arc is How a Saint and said she was divinely inspired to turn the tide of the Dundred years War in favor of the French. Many of the Sites of her Battles including the first ones that broke the siege of Orleans Are scattered throughout the  gentrification of the Loire area started in the mid-1400s, As the area became the seat of state for _ the Royal court. The nabobs continued gilding their nests through the 16th Century. Many of the forts were either co opted into residences or Hunting lodges or quarried for building Stone. The results Are what stand today though guides say. The buildings suffered from neglect in the 17th Century and from vandalism if not downright _ _ destruction in the 18th and 19th centuries. It seems Hiat Many people who caught the Republican spirit could t warm up to the relics of the upper class s extravagance pm Coc a Gat Chat blah Belo com bad the Chai the Banks of the Loire make a Good picnic spot