Veronica 4

Beauvais Cathedral

45 m high choir

Mistletowe

Notify OHS ?

Marie-Laure

St Omer en Chaussee, Friday our rest day. We slept well in our little room.  A walk to the village revealed not much. Though it is useful to know that the boulangerie opens at 7am.   After lunch we caught the train to Beauvais a town 15km away.   We visited the cathedral of St Pierre which is beautiful but It has a long history of problems.  The choir was destroyed by fire in 1225 and rebuilt over decades. A large part of a wall collapsed in 1284.  In the 16th century the transept was added,  and a very large tower, which collapsed five years later.   The tower was never rebuilt.  More damage was caused during WW 2.   In the late 20th Century the part of the choir left standing in 1284 started to collapse. Major work is now underway with much bracing evident. There are amazing stained glass windows , the oldest chiming clock in the world and a 12m high astronomical clock. The Gothic choir is 48m high, the highest choir in history apparently.  Stunning to look at. Willem was looking up to see where they (the choir) sat!!   You can tell he is not a church going man. Next we visited the Musee d' Oise with some interesting wood and stone carvings. There was also a large exhibition of the work of Mario Avati an engraver specialising in mezzotints which is said to be one of the most demanding mediums. Apparently Escher tried it but said it was too difficult.  Most enjoyable and 'gratuite'.  On the way back to the train Willem spotted a man painting an upstairs window. Standing on a small stool on the window ledge. He was wearing a safety harness but I don't know what OSH would think of it. Hope the photo is good.   It was a  lovely afternoon. Walking back from the station to the hotel I noticed trees with lots of balls of mistletoe. Something I have never seen before
Dinner again was delicious. A glass of champagne to begin to celebrate our first 600km. From the  €32 set menu ( in English ) I chose a salade with gizzards,liver,potatoes and nuts, salmon with white butter sauce and of course creme brûlée.   This is only the start. With our champers we were give a small dish of tasty nibbles then an amuse bouche of half of a cherry tomato and a tiny piece of mozzarella. After the gizzard salad came an apple sorbet with plum liqueur. The salmon was small but good and the creme brûlée excellent.  And  now to  bed.....

Saturday. On the road again. A really lovely route  with some big( for me) hills.  'Not much of a hill' Willem said to me encouragingly at the start of one of them. But at each corner it just kept going up. .They were steeper going up so at least we had some really nice long descents.  On one hill a lady driver waiting  patiently to turn after I had passed,
opened her window and called out 'courage!'  That made me feel better,  I had been wanting applause from the people driving by but they didn't seem to notice my effort.   After some searching we found our hotel. Locked up and no one to be found..... We were saved by the neighbours.  I asked a man if he knew where the owners were. He spoke no English but his friend, a lady appeared,who did.   She invited us in. She tried the three phone numbers on the hotel door, no reply.   She made us coffee and fed us cake and we talked in a mix of English and French.  Eventually Daniel,the man said that someone was home. We said fond farewells to him and to Marie-Laure and booked in to the hotel.
It was old fashioned  but OK and the bar was lively when it opened about 5pm.  People coming in and shaking hands with everyone including us. I like that courtesy.