Vaucouleurs

Above the modest main street in the market town of Vaucouleurs, you can see ruins of Robert de Baudricourt's ancient medieval castle and the Porte de France, through which Joan of Arc led her armed soldiers to Orléans. The barefoot Maid of Orléans spent a year within these walls, arriving on May 13, 1428, to ask the help of the governor Baudricourt. After wheedling an audience with Baudricourt, she then convinced him of the necessity of her mission, learning to ride and to sword-fight. Won over finally by her conviction and by popular sentiment, he offered to give her an escort to seek out the king. On February 23, 1429, clad in page's garb and with her hair cut short, Jeanne d'Arc rode out through the Porte de France. A train route runs to Vaucouleurs from Toul and Nancy.