On the south the fishermen's suburb of Le Portereau, with its Augustinian church and monastery, extended along the river at the foot of the vineyards of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, which produced the best wine in the country.[484] Above, on the gentle slopes ascending to the bleak plateau of Sologne, the Loiret, with its torrential springs, its limpid waters, its shady banks, the gardens and the brooks of Olivet, smiled beneath a mild and showery sky.
[Footnote 484: Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire de l'eglise et diocese d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1647, vol.i, preface.

Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p.
36.] The _faubourg_ of the Burgundian gate stretching eastwards was the best built and the most populous.

There were the wonderful churches of Saint-Michel and of Saint-Aignan.

The cloister of the latter was held to be marvellous.[485] Leaving this suburb and passing by the vineyards along the sandy branch of the Loire extending between the bank of the river and l'Ile-aux-Boeufs about a quarter of a league further on, one comes to the steep slope of Saint-Loup; and, advancing still further towards the east, the belfries of Saint-Jean-de-Bray, Combleux and Checy may be seen rising one beyond the other between the river and the Roman road from Autun to Paris.

On the north of the city were fine monasteries and beautiful churches, the chapel of Saint-Ladre, in the cemetery; the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, the church of Saint-Pierre-Ensentelee.