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| Half-timbered houses in Nonacourt, France |
The coastal towns of Brittany were wonderful and we’d had
a great time there in our motorhome, Vanni. But a large storm was forming over
the Atlantic, so we left the coast and drove through the southern part of
Normandy, toward Paris.
We anticipated a 5.5-hour drive, but it was slowed by
both the weather, and the number of interesting villages that we passed through.
We stopped in Alençon, seeking their famous lace, then carried on to look at the
traditional half-timbered houses in the villages of Nonacourt and Verneuil-sue-Avre.
But the drive seemed long. We decided not to press on to Paris, and found
a camping ground for the night in the village of Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre.
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| Baguette on Rue de Longuile, Maisons-Laffitte, Paris |
The next morning, we drove to Maisons-Laffitte, the town with the
closest campsite to central Paris. But it was a challenge – there were major
street closures because it was their market day.
We were diverted through one-way streets that were very narrow, until
we got to one that was two-way, but still very narrow in our big motorhome.
Unfortunately, it had cars parked along the street making
it even narrower! Leigh had to drive Vanni half on the footpath, avoiding
pedestrians and rubbish bins, to enable oncoming traffic to get past, and us to
move forward. It was very slow going but eventually we got through to our campsite.
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| Marg and barge on the banks of the
Seine River, Paris |
The Maisons-Laffitte campsite is on an island on the Seine River and
surrounded by trees – we loved it. We had a wonderful view of the barges and
other boating traffic going up and down the Seine between Paris and the coast.
Some of the barges were immense, consisting of two long barges plus the
engine, with one carrying huge loads of coal and gravel, plus other things we
could only guess at.
The weather was not very kind to us that evening and we experienced
quite a bit of wet, cold, windy weather which restricted our movements a bit. Despite the weather, the next day we caught the train into Paris.
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| Marg at Sacré-Cœur, Paris (spot the pink) |
We made our way around the interesting little streets of this beautiful and atmospheric city, before taking the funicular up to the famous Sacré-Cœur
Basilica. Built on the highest hill in Paris, the views from there were great.
Most of Paris, including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, so we spent the rest of the day seeing as many sites as possible.
Then the skies opened again and the rain set in with a vengeance!
Luckily, we had our wet weather gear, so rugged up, and headed for shelter and
afternoon tea at the stunning Art Deco masterpiece that is Galeries Lafayette,
before heading back to camp.
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| Marg in Montmartre, Paris |
We grabbed the train into Paris again the next morning, and had a
great time wandering around Montmartre, and seeing more sights.
We’ve both been
to Paris as least twice each in previous years so, cold and wet, we headed back
to camp early.
That night, we heard a knock on Vanni’s door. It seems the New Zealand
flag that we put on Vanni’s dashboard, had been spotted by fellow Kiwis who
were very excited to see us.
They were Claire and Derek who had been
travelling around Europe for 4 months. We had an evening meal together and shared lots of laughs, and some
good French wine.
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| 13th
century Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens, France |
The next morning, we drove north to Amiens, a lovely city in France’s
Somme area. Its impressive 13th century cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also the tallest of the large Gothic
cathedrals in France, and is incredibly ornate.
After visiting the cathedral, we wandered through Amiens, enjoying the main square, and the lovely canal area with its interesting brick row-houses.
We stayed in Amiens overnight, then drove to Albert the next morning to
visit their museum on the Somme battles. Then we drove through many little
country roads to
the Euston Road WWI cemetery near the village of Colincamps.
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| Euston Rd WW1 Cemetery with Uncle Herbert’s gravestone |
We were going there to find the grave of Marg’s Dad’s oldest brother,
Rifleman Herbert William Lean, who was killed in May 1918 during the first
world war.
We found the cemetery, among many other similar cemeteries in the area,
then found Uncle Herbert’s gravestone among thousands of others from New
Zealand.
It was a sobering sight to see so many gravestones of mainly young men -
line after line of them, and we contemplated the dreadful waste of so many
lives.
After a while, we took some photos, wrote in the visitor’s book and
moved on across the Somme.
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| Marg at Colincamps Euston Rd WW1 Cemetery |
The route we drove is known as the “WW1 Front Line Route” and we saw even
more memorials and graveyards. And they were for so many different countries –
New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, UK, France and more.
We were quite blown away by the scale of it all, and the never-ending
gravestones and crosses.
The cemeteries were all well looked after, with lovely rose bushes
and plants around the graves. WW1 is certainly not forgotten in this part of
the world.
Leaving Colincamps, we headed for Reims, a very attractive and vibrant university city, with an historic
centre and three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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| Marg at Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims (UNESCO) |
The first UNESCO site
we visited was the 13th century Notre-Dame Cathedral. It is one of the great
gothic cathedrals of northern France and has beautiful stained-glass
windows, including one by Marc Chagall.
We also visited the Former Abbey of Saint-Remi Museum, and the Palace
of Tau, the other two UNESCO Sites.
That night, we
couldn’t find a camping ground, so camped in the large carpark of a sport stadium in
Reims, which was surprisingly quiet in the night.
The next morning, we drove to Châlons-en-Champagne in France's Champagne region, where we planned some wine tasting.
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| Half-timbered shop and canal in Châlons-en-Champagne |
Châlons town is nicknamed "little Venice" because
of all the rivers and canals that flow through it. We visited the old town and saw
several canals, old bridges, and lovely half-timbered houses and shops.
We also visited the church
of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux which is on the Route of
Santiago de Compostela (see “Spain’s north-west” blog), and so is a
UNESCO Site.
We didn’t do any more
sightseeing or champagne tasting after that because of the cold. Instead, we
found a small and peaceful campsite in nearby L’Epine where we stopped for a relaxing
break - a little enforced by the cold and then wet weather.
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| The cathedral Basilica Notre-Dame de L'Epine (UNESCO) |
On the way to the campsite,
we went to see the cathedral Basilica Notre-Dame de L’Epine. This cathedral is
classified as a “major masterpiece of Flamboyant Gothic style”. Although
we’d seen many cathedrals on this trip, we thought the L’Epine cathedral was
quite stunning. The intricate detail of the stonework was amazing as were the
stained-glass windows.
As it is also on the
Route of Santiago de Compostela, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We are now on a short timeframe to get our campervan returned to Ceske
Budejovice in Czechia, and then get to Prague to fly home, so we soon moved on.
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| Marg at Verdun Citadel |
Heading east to the France/Germany border, we stopped briefly at Verdun.
This place became renown during WW1 due to the amazing tunnels that were built
underneath the township and that became a fortress. In here, the locals were able to withstand many German onslaughts over the years.
We were amazed at the displays and film footage that showed the
appalling conditions that the inhabitants would have lived and fought in at the
time – yet they survived. It was very inspiring.
After Verdun, we drove on to Metz to view its lovely compact and
pedestrian-friendly old town and amazing cathedral.
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| St Etienne Cathedral-Marc Chagall window, Metz |
The 13th century cathedral St Etienne in Metz is one of the most
impressive, and is apparently one of the tallest in France, with more stained
glass than any other cathedral in the world. Marc Chagall designed three windows
for this cathedral, depicting scenes from the old testament…and they are
beautiful.
We have seen many places of worship during this trip, because we admire
the architecture, the craftmanship of the stone-work, and the artworks,
and have almost become ‘cathedral-ed out’.
However, the big French cathedrals although mostly Gothic in style,
have all been quite different, particularly in their stonework, spires and
windows. All are very impressive.
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| Marg at the Porte des Allemands in Metz |
While in Metz, we visited the old town and the interesting Porte des
Allemands, one of the last medieval bridge castles in France. It is quite
impressive, having two 13th century round towers and two 15th century gun
bastions.
But after a few days in Metz it was time to move on, and out of France.
We’ve seen a very large number of markets, wineries, vineyards, Gothic
and Medieval buildings, castles, and of course, cathedrals, throughout this
wonderful country. Its history is amazing and we’ve found the people to be very
helpful and friendly. We’ve loved our months here and are sorry to be moving
on.
But we said farewell to France and crossed over the border into Germany,
ready for our next adventure.
This blog describes part of our 6-month campervan trip around
western Europe, which began in Prague in April.