Chartres, Rouen, Lille

Sunday, May 3: Chartres and Rouen

Biked about 10 minutes into the central square of Chartres. We've been here a couple time before, but for various reasons, hadn't gone into the huge cathedral. The 17th C choir screen is unbelievable, so huge and so detailed. Hard to imagine how it was done.

It was Sunday, so many townsfolk were hanging out around the various small chapels, praying to the various saints and saintes. We stuck around for the beginning of Mass but somehow didn't feel compelled to stay for the whole thing, or the first 5 minutes for that matter. As we looked around we noticed a couple of women using this machine to submit their alms and prayers. Somehow makes the whole concept wonky... does Mary use Square to download his funds? But for that matter, how does she manage to deposit her Euros? Which bank does she use?

After a lovely café alongé and Café au lait at this cafe on the square, we toured the town. The small Saint-Aignan church was a delightful find... as old as the Cathedral, but smaller and more intimate. The parishioners exiting as we arrived seemed a younger and more convivial group, and the interior was warmly decorated.

The stroll along the Eure riverside had some lovely views, with some ancient bridges and wash houses.

It did rain today, the first real weather annoyance of our trip, so we hopped back in the van mid afternoon and headed north toward Rouen. Much to our surprise, the target camper parking at Rouen was unexpectedly full! So we use our app to find another one 20 kms north in pretty little Montville. Not sure why it is called that, as it was down in a valley rather than upon a Mont!

In the evening we had a stroll around the little lake with a lovely variety of ducks and geese.

Monday, May 4: Rouen and Abbeville

Back into Rouen this morning for a walkabout. We've been here a couple times before, but hadn't actually done the designated walking tour. As with Orleans, as well as the famous cathedral, there is a smaller and more intimate church, but equally historic and awesome. In the case, the Saint Maclou.

The Cathedral is of course, spectacular, but the tall metal spire is under reconstruction for a couple of years. It is closed on Mondays, so we weren't able to go in.... but what the heck... seen one glorious cathedral, seen 'em all!

Everywhere one turns in Rouen, there are amazing little medieval street scenes.

After noon, we set off again. The current plan is to head casually eastward to arrive back in Amsterdam in 6 days. By casually, I mean set Google maps to "avoid highways", and boy, does she take that seriously! 

We started off through some tiny residential streets from Rouen, then onto some lovely little two line byways through pretty little towns and farmlands. Occasionally, she would send us on a short cut through single lane country lanes with no room to pull over for oncoming traffic, of which we encoutered none, fortunatly.

We have settled for the night in Abbeville, in a free parking lot,  and a late afternoon walking tour. Abbeville was hit hard in WW 2, so much of it's historical sites are interspersed amongst more modern buildings, and even those are largely reconstructions.

Ruins of an Ursaline convent.

The Collegiale Saint-Vulfran is partially reconstructed.

And then back to the van, shoes off, and relax!

Tuesday, May 5: Saint Riquier and Lille

Ok, you can admit it... you've been wondering how we take care of necessary "business" in a little campervan with only a sink and stove. For the simpler stuff, we have brought an ice cream bucket all the way from Gibsons, which is fine through the night and can be simply dumped in the often provided recepticles at the camping parks. If there are no such recepticles, the the side of the road will do.

For more complicated "business" we have to either find a "toilet publique" or a convenient café at the convenient time. Pat is rather claustrophobic of most of the French publics, as they are often a big steel automated compartment with buttons you have to press to get into and out of. If you press the wrong button at the wrong time, it starts cleaning itself with you in it! Or the button might not work at all.

So, the preferred option is a café for morning coffee, and frequently those are great experiences, nice café au lait or café alongé amongst the locals... and that was the case this morning, as we found ourselves in a surprise town called Saint Riquier.

We spotted the town's bell tower as we approached from the little country road we were on, and dropped into the little café in this photo, and with a marvellously decorated 12th C church and abbey buildings.

The town was really quite small, but some centuries ago was a pretty significant church town with an abbey, a UNESCO listed bell tower, and with a huge "Hotel Dieu", meaning a sort of hospital and shelter for the poor and incapacitated. We were there too early for any of them to be open, but it was a great stopover nevertheless.

An hour or so later, along our "avoid highways" Google route through beautiful countryside, another pretty church on a steep little hill, though I can't remeber the town's name.

But our goal for the afternoon was the city of Lille, approaching Belgium. As per our usual planning lately, we had no idea what to expect, but found it to be a major tourist stop, with an amazing "modern" cathedral, and a maze of narrow cobbled streets with some very high end shops and galleries.

The main cathedral is similar in size and layout as most of the 12th and 13th century churches we have toured, but interestingly, this was primarily built from the mid 1800s, and not substantailly completed until the mid 1900s. The entire front of the cathedral is an architectural installation from earlier in this century. It looks rather stark and cold from the outside, though up close the steel webbing around the white frontage is quite interesting...

But the inside of the same structure is vibrant and warm, with a spectacular modern "rose" window created by a Polish painter.

Throughout the nave and transept were some wonderful modern sculptures and paintings, so much livelier than most dridufy old edifices.

And then a wander through the streets, courtyards, and magnificent squares.

And of course a sampling of the local wares....

Further eastward tomorrow as we wend our way slowly back to Amsterdam to drop of the van by Saturday. Probably Bruges tomorrow, though who knows what might catch our eye along the way!