For long distances the river seems so very little below the level of the surrounding country that there seems scarcely any reason why it should keep to the course it now follows. In wet seasons the flat, sandy shores are often covered by the river, which spreads out into broad lagoons and engulfs the grassy islands. At Meung, where the road bends to the right, there is an interesting abbey church, founded in the sixth century by St. Liphard. It was burnt by Louis le Gros in the early part of the eleventh century, but before its close the church had been rebuilt with the exception of the tower. This western tower, with a pyramidal spire, is connected with a curtain wall to a thirteenth-century fortified tower, the oldest part of the castle of the Bishops of Orleans, which was chiefly built in the classic period of some 400 years later. The village has some old houses, and the Porte Amont, rebuilt in the seventeenth century. BEAUGENCY The first glimpse of this compact little town is very suggestive of antiquity. It is overshadowed by a huge Norman keep, about whose lichened parapets jackdaws circle and flutter, and across the river stands the oldest bridge on the Loire--some of its twenty-six arches going back to the thirteenth century. The keep is called the Tour de César, and it is all that now remains of the first Castle, built at the end of the eleventh century. The other portions were constructed in 1440 by Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, who maintained the defence of Orleans against the English until relieved by Jeanne d’Arc. There is a most picturesque courtyard with open arcading and a tower, and the great hall, known as the Salle de Jeanne d’Arc, has a huge fireplace. The buildings are now a Depôt de Mendicité. Close to the castle is the Transitional Church of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame, finished at the end of the twelfth century, and lately restored. It was burnt by the Protestants in 1567, when they committed terrible excesses in the town. Besides the church, there is nothing left of the abbey buildings, except an old circular tower called the Tour du Diable and the Abbot’s house. Adjoining the Hôtel St. Étienne[A] there is a picturesque wooden house with moulded beams and much carving, and along one side of the hotel courtyard is the disused Church of St. Étienne, a very interesting and perfect little cruciform building of the eleventh century or earlier. It has a central tower, and the windows are small and very deeply splayed. Being kept locked, the plain barrel vaulting of the interior can only be dimly seen through the unglazed windows.