Degrés Des Trois Glorieuses

These steps lead up from the river to the château. They come down right where the bridge crosses the river, so they would be the most direct route from St.-Aignan's northern gate to the château, for pedestrians, anyway; horses and carts would have to go up through town.

The steps lead up from the Hotel du Moulin (the Mill Hotel) to the château.

Where I stood to take this picture is now a parking lot along the river where the bridge crosses. There used to be a big mill on this site. The bridge was an integral part of the mill building, which was built out over the river to take advantage of the watercourse. The bridge serves as a small dam on this section of the Cher, creating a reservoir of water that once powered the mill.

Unfortunately, the mill and the adjacent downriver buildings are long gone. All that remain of them are some footings in the river. And a lovely parking lot.

Saint-Aignan's former mill on the river Cher.

But I found the above image on the web. It's an old postcard that shows the bridge and the mill before it was destroyed. It's from a site called saint-aignan.org. There is a nice collection of other old images there if you're interested.

By the way, les Trois Glorieuses (the Three Glorious Days) are named for three days of revolt against King Charles X and his power grab in July 1830. You can read about it here and here.

***UPDATE: I found this cool video on the history of the St.-Aignan mill. It's in French. The video is still visually interesting if you don't understand French.