The Hotel de France is situated right in the middle of the old centre of Loches. It's a great location, close to appealing shops, good restaurants and attractive old stone buildings all around. Sadly it has been embroiled in a long running legal battle over a dispute between the owner of the building and the owners of the hotel business. Parts of the building are unuseable and I don't know how long the hotel business is going to survive.
There has been a hotel on this site for centuries. They provided meals for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, when he was imprisoned in the old castle of Loches from 1504 to 1508. It was a post house, where fresh horses were available for riders, and later for coaches, allowing messengers to deliver letters at the fastest possible speed.
Louis XI established the network of relais de poste, as they are called in French, and in 1506, in the reign of his nephew Louis XII, the system was opened up to the public as well. Post houses were about 20 kilometres apart, but could be further or closer, depending on the terrain. At the system's height, in the early 19th century, there were 16 000 horses available to crisscross France, housed in stables with adjoining auberges (inns) serving meals and providing rooms for employees of the postal service and other travellers. The network was terminated in 1873, made obsolete by the railways.
The current hotel building is 19th century, but it is not clear to me who built it or when, despite the name and date on the pediment. Alfred Adolphe Naudet was the proprietor in 1892, as indicated on the pediment, and presumably he undertook major work on the building, but he may have been modernising an already existing building. He advertised the hotel as modern, with heating and electricity. In his day it was the Grand Hotel de France. He and his wife Adèle Amélie Audigé bought the hotel from the Brunaud family in 1873. Pierre Auguste Brunaud came from Argenton sur Creuse, where his family ran a café, and his wife, Marie Julie Fouque Lacroix came from Issoudun. In 1840 they paid 30 000 francs to Charles Duchemin and Madeleine Gallicher for the hotel. They clearly did rather well, as they bought the house, with outbuildings, across the street from the hotel, as well as a barn and two parcels of vines over the years.
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3 comments:
When we walk up the side street, not rue Picois but the street with the bakery La Poolish, we get a glimpse of the courtyard of the hotel, always set up with dining tables and large pots of flowers. It looks very appealing. I don't think I ever really noticed the front of the hotel around the corner.
We atayed at the hotel at the end of December 2009, the night we signed for our house in LPP. We were worried that we might not be able to sign and move in the furniture we'd brought across from the Alps and the UK. Our room was above the back courtyard and very quirky! Breakfast was good.
After checking in at about 5pm we decided to have a walk aroung Loches in the driving rain and went out through the courtyard doors. Tim opened the door for me, stood back and I stepped through. Tim came tripping through shortly after and fell on to the street. He hadn't realised that there was a door within a door and he needed to step over it. A young man walking along the street rushed to his aid, and as he walked away Tim mused on why the young man had thought to speak to him in English. I suggested that his swear words as he tripped and hit the floor might have had something to do with it... o))
I'm sorry to hear there are issues, and I suspect the new hotel will have an effect on business in the future.
We have often perused the menu but have never taken the plunge to eat there. I hope it survives.
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