Montargis -- mix of Old and New

With Friday behind and overseas visitors heading home, I sojourn to: Montargis. A town developed along the banks of the; River Loing and the Briare Canal.

One of the two Tea houses in town:.....






It also has a rich modern affiliation with early Chinese Communism.

"Long before he reshaped world history by setting Communist China on a capitalist course, the teenage Deng Xiaoping made shoes at a rubber plant in Montargis. It was during his formative French years that the Chinese leader, who died in 1997, first dabbled with revolution and developed a taste for croissants." .... "Montargis in the 1920s was home to several hundred Chinese who came to work and study and, for the most socially and politically conscious, to explore ways to modernize China by learning from the West. The movement was called "Qingong jianxue," or diligent work, thrifty study."