Inland to Beauvais

Zagan the motorhome is in a free aire, with a free service point on a hillside overlooking the city of Beauvais (N49.42452, E2.08088). Next to the aire is a flight of steps which take you straight into the town centre in just a few minutes – although the walk back up takes a little longer.

We’re settling back into staying in places for at least a couple of days and love waking up on a ‘no driving day’. After the Sunday crowds and grey clouds departed Le Treport, we virtually had the place to ourselves in the sunshine on Monday. We both went for runs along the cliff tops, wandered around the seafront and went up and down on the funicular many, many times. 

Around the town are information boards telling you about the recent history of the place, and it would seem that every large, old building was used as a hospital to treat the wounded during World War I due to its close proximity to the Somme battlefields. We paid our respects at one of the Commonwealth War Graveyards in the town, its pristine lawns and graves lovingly wrapped inside the normal graveyard. Reading the information book, you could sadly see many who survived the fighting only to die of their injuries or blood poisoning in the makeshift hospitals.

We had a look around the town’s graveyard too as, I don’t know about you, we find these fascinating places to visit. I was surprised to see quite a few graves with names and a date, a dash and a space – waiting to filled in with the year of death. I’m not sure I would find it comforting to know there’s a grave ready and waiting for me.

After a couple of days by the sea it was time to head inland and make our way towards our rendezvous with friends in Paris. We chose the city of Beauvais as the aire had good reviews and it is only about 80km from the capital, so we’ll have an easy drive in on Thursday. It’s so close that we understand that it is known as Paris-Beauvais airport if you are flying with Ryanair – ahem!

We don’t really like driving in cities, everyone seems in such a hurry and it’s never very clear where to go. As we drove into the centre of Beauvais satnav informed us that we needed to turn left, helpfully in time to get into the turn left lane for a change. The learner driver in front of us stopped indicating left, and as we looked up we could see why – there was a policeman, complete with whistle in mouth, blocking the road and waving everyone straight on. Of course we weren’t in the straight on lane, but sometimes motorhome bulk does come into its own and we edged our way across, following the learner driver as satnav recalculated, humming and harring. 

At first sight we thought the road was closed for a carnival or procession, but on closer inspection it was a protest of some sort. Two of the big unions weren’t happy about something. We bum clenched our way through the centre of the city, managing to not make any wrong turns and popped out at the bottom of a big hill which brought us up to the aire. Once we’d had a spot of lunch we headed off down the steps to explore.

In the main square the protest was petering out with more police than protesters left. We sat under the statue of Jeanne ‘Hachette’, complete with big axe, famous for pushing one of the Burgundian attackers, who had laid siege to the city, into the moat in 1472. This caused the rest of the Beauvaisians to rise up and resist the attackers until the royal troops arrived. Beauvais’ version of Jeanne d’Arc. 

After people watching for a while we wandered over to the cathedral for a look around. It was quite a quick look around as there is only half a cathedral there. In the 13th Century the Bishop Count wanted to build the biggest cathedral in the realm, so work started on an enormous choir. A large portion of which collapsed after 12 years. Undeterred, they rebuilt and added a transept, followed by a lantern tower to make it taller than any other cathedral. Four years later the tower collapsed, damaging the church. Once again it was rebuilt, but by the 17th Century funds ran out and the nave was never added. Most cathedral floorplans are based on the shape of a cross, this one has the top and two side bits of the cross, but not the biggest bottom bit, which is where everyone sits to see the service.

The lack of nave has led to continued problems such as pillars moving and general instability. This probably wasn’t helped by the city around the cathedral being pretty much flattened by German bombers in 1940. The locals took to the hills during the air raid, it’s sobering to think that some of them probably stood where we are parked, terrified as their city burned. Today huge wooden trusses holding up sections of the building, the stone floor pulled up to secure them into the ground. Inside the cathedral you could pay €5 to see an astronomical clock, but I was more than happy for just a quick look around and to get out of there. I’m sure it won’t collapse again any time soon, but it does have previous!

Around the back of the cathedral was my favourite part. Work had stopped, so where the nave should be attached was just tiled and a rose window added – a bit like when the contestants run out of time for their show-stoppers in Great British Bake Off. Sitting tucked up next to the tiles are the remains of a 10th Century church which has mainly been consumed by the cathedral. It reminded me of a Star Wars when you see a huge cruiser ship swallowing up a smaller ship. I’m sort of glad the big old cathedral didn’t get finished allowing some of the smaller church to survive.

Tomorrow we head to Paris and a meet up with our friends Rose and Paul who we met in 2013. You might not hear from us for a few days while we enjoy some sightseeing, our first foreign park run and a lot of reminiscing with good company.

Ju x