Beauvais

Before setting off to Arras and our making our farewells to Mike and Dott we had a quick look around Beauvais and some final tutoring on church architecture by Mike

This was the entrance to the bishops palace next door.

The Bishops palace!

We first visited the Cathedral of St Peter of Beauvais. Work was begun in 1225 but interrupted in 1284 by the collapse of some of the vaulting of the recently completed choir.This is part of the previous church on the site which they never demolished as the cathedral kept falling down. The cathedral is quite asymmetrical as they never finished the other part of it.

In the race to build the tallest cathedral in the 13th century, the builders pushed the technology to the limits. Even though the structure was to be taller, the buttresses were made thinner in order to pass maximum light into the cathedral and this was thought to have caused the collapse. But it remains the tallest church building in Europe.

Several of the chapels contain medieval stained glass windows made during the 13th through 15th centuries.

In a chapel close to the northern entrance, there is a medieval clock (14th - 15th century), probably the oldest fully preserved and functioning mechanical clock in Europe. In its vicinity, a highly complicated Beauvais Astronomical clock with moving figures was installed in 1866.

We explored around the outside amongst the remains of the Roman wall and towers. It had been an important Roman town up to the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire

Then it was a quick look at St Ettienne. It wasn't open but it was an interesting mixture of Romanesque and Late gothic. The earliest parts were started in 1072. The late gothic parts were started after 1502.

After lunch we made our way towards Arras, travelling through the Somme Valley. There are so many graveyards of war dead. It's hard to imagine this peaceful beautiful, green countryside gripped in mayhem and blood shed.

It was a sad goodbye to Dott and Mike when we reached Arras. They have shown us so many different aspects of France and they have driven and navigated us over 3000 kms. They have explained the customs, translated our needs to shops assistants and explained the finer points of French history, architecture, art and social customs. We have had lots of laughs and new experiences and have enjoyed their company and their sense of humour.

We found our hotel easily and booked in. We have a great room overlooking the square which is just jumping. Early night tonight to prepare for our battlefield tour tomorrow.

Geoff is out of control!