10 Years On - Part 5 of Account of Cycling Northern France

I remember one character from this day and this was the woman at the Tourist Office in Amiens who poured scorn on how far I had cycled and could not understand why anyone would want to stay in anything less than a 3-star hotel. She also seemed surprised that the whole world was not informed about the affairs of Amiens and that I had arrived in the middle of the city's festival oblivious to the fact it was on and expecting to find accommodation. As such I got very put off the city and left it quickly. I only returned in 2005 and this time got to go into the heart of the Hortillonages, the unique floating gardens of Amiens at that time.

I think Amiens should have sacked that woman as her high-handed attitude certainly dissuaded this tourist from staying in the city, contrary to what the function of her job presumably was; with her reaction I almost chucked it all in and cycled on to Abbeville that day. Perhaps Amiens has criteria regarding its visitors: you must be fully knowledgeable about its itinerary, have cycled at least 120Km to reach it and stay only in 3+ star hotels.

 

I do remember talking to the young man who was the guide to the tower in the cathedral which has a wonderful maze. Both of us though each other's country had a strange mix of old and new. He had visited London and talked of the historic buildings in the City of London alongside the newest financial institutions and I talked of all the high-tech octagonal telephone boxes I had seen in tiny French villages that lacked even a shop. The French got into DVDs and the internet well ahead of the British. He also spoke about his irritation at visitors, especially school parties who came to the cathedral simply because it was 'big' with no concept of its history, meaning or function and little willingness to learn that.

I also remember the fact that going to bed at around 21.00 each night I liked to eat early but in Amiens I could find no restaurant of any quality that opened before 19.00 and so had to sit around rather bored waiting to get some food. Probably snobbery got in the way in that aspect. However, with me feeling the holiday was a failure, having good meals seemed to be the only compensation and also as I had no-one to talk to in the evenings it meant I could avoid hours of solitude in my room, which, bar in Arras, did not even have a television. This was the day that I decided to abandon the holiday, though, at eight days, it beat the two days of my 2008 Belgian holiday.


Friday 18th June 1999

Well I am really beginning to get sick of this holiday, it is not that things are going wrong, though I did make two mistakes over the past two days. There was a youth hostel in Arras, on La Grand' Place where I ate last night. I must say I saw no signs to it though. Secondly, used to using only five gears around London I have forgotten that I have five others for climbing hills which would have been very useful on Wednesday. I am an idiot, blinded by fatigue.

I set off promptly and did not get lost. I had a sandwich in Rainneville and reached Amiens at 13.30. At the Tourist Office the woman insisted on speaking French and kept pointing to 3-star places but I persuaded her to book me a room at the restaurant-hotel 'Le Tatarin' on the edge of the centre, only 120F a night, a sink, no shower.

I am getting through my money too quickly. It was good that I checked at the office as many places are booked up for the 2-day festival. I worried about staying here 2 days and arriving at Beauvais on Sunday and not getting a place but there is a lot to see in Amiens which is bigger than Arras. This is the capital of Picardy, different to the North of previous days.

I wandered around taking photos of the beautiful public buildings and looked around the cathedral, the largest in France and chatted (in English) with the guide. I also looked around the Belfry and Les Halles covered market. I had to wait in a park until 'The Salmon House' restaurant opened at 19.15, others did not open until 20.00.

My holiday is being ruined by constant worries which affect me even cycling through beautiful countryside. I could have eaten more cheaply but would have tired of burgers and pizzas. The food was tasty but I was too impatient to stay for cheese or coffee. I came back to the hotel's rock hard bed. I have decided to abandon the holiday, it is too stressful. I will look around town tomorrow and get back via Abbeville, Montreuil and Calais which means getting home on Tuesday rather than Saturday via Beauvais-Rouen-Dieppe then Abbeville.

Weather: Sunny and hot.

Slender Avenue on Road from Arras to Amiens, June 1999

This is far from being my perfect avenue along a French road, which has to have much larger trees and be straighter. However, it does indicate the traffic levels that I had to deal with on much of my cycling.
 

Modern Church in Amiens, June 1999

Theatre in Amiens, June 1999

Public Building in Amiens, June 1999

Door Panel in Amiens, June 1999

Views of Amiens Cathedral, June 1999

In this and some subsequent photos in other postings about this trip I seem to have fallen victim to the 1980s fashion of shooting pictures through different shaped 'cut-outs'. To some degree, I think this was also, as can be seen from the images, it was a very sunny June and the light would cut across especially when trying to shoot buildings against the sky as I often did. This is probably the best of the bunch in that style.
 

Carvings around Main Entrance to Amiens Cathedral, June 1999



Detail of Statues of Male Saints
 

Detail of Statues of Female Saints
 

 

Detail of Bas-relief Carvings on Amiens Cathedral, June 1999

Tower in Amiens, June 1999

 

Views of the Beffroi (Belfry) in Amiens, June 1999

 

Taken at 5.55pm on 18th June, 1999.
 

 

The Sundial on the Face of the Beffroi in Amiens, June 1999

 

Palais de Justice in Amiens, June 1999

Amiens Town Hall, June 1999

Building Facade in Amiens, June 1999

Another of my photos of the front of some building, clearly fed by my interest in architecture.

10 Years On - Part 4 of Account of Cycling Northern France

Having read four Georges Simenon short stories in the weeks before I went on this trip I was keen to try andouillettes, a tripe sausage popular in northern France and favoured by Georges Simenon's most famous character, Maigret. It was a terrible mistake. They seemed to consist of white-grey tubing with the consistency of wet rubber. The meal I had on this evening in Arras was probably the one which I hated the most of all the food I ever ate in France. I always felt I should do things properly and have an aperitif but actually I dislike almost all drinks served as that, bar some kirs. On this occasion I had a Calvados which I disliked, though again I drank it as I felt I should fit in with how things should be done in France.

My nervousness with talking with women also strayed into my holiday. The woman mentioned in this account was in her 20s (I was 31 at the time) and sitting at one of the restaurant's outside tables. Reflecting on the situation, these days, I think she probably did not want to be bothered anyway and would have resented me trying to talk to her. Women in Britain envy those in France, able to dine alone without hassle, so I might have got myself into difficulty if I had spoken to her. Anyway my French was probably not up to sustaining a conversations. As it is, holidays as an adult have always been very solitary affairs and even when I have been with other people on holiday they have often been unwilling to compromise and do some of the things I like to do. One, even eight years on, is still angered, because, when in the Canaries I wanted to go cycling around the island and coming back from a day away from him and our mutual friend, I was apparently too noisy in those few minutes and so ruined his whole day of lying on the beach. I find it hard to accept that me talking for short time ruined hours of sunbathing, but there you are. I am not a competent holidaymaker and clearly worse when with other people.

Some people I would not have wanted to interact with. At 'Café Au Bureau' there was an East coast American woman and her grown up daughter at the next table. The waiter spoke excellent English but the woman assumed he spoke none and yet bombarded him with very rapid orders along the lines of 'I want lemonade, you know 7-Up, Sprite.' '7-Up?' He asked trying to write it down. 'Yes, two and with ice, and some bread and another napkin.' It went on in this vein. I leaned over and freaked them out because they assumed I did not speak English and in my best Noel Coward voice said 'when I want another napkin I simply, hold it up and say "encore"'. In fact that is the easiest way to get 'same again' in a French place and is not rude. By now it was comic that people assumed I spoke no English. Just getting on a bicycle seems to shave you of any British aspects that people associate with you. That might not be such the case if you are cycling in the Alps or the Pyrenees.

I remember trying to buy a can of coca cola from a small shop, perhaps the one with the white facade pictured below and asking for a 'boite'. We had been taught when I had learnt French formally in the early 1980s that that meant either box or can in French. Given that the French government was pressing traditional French on its population at the time, for example 'voiture' for car rather than 'auto', I stuck with 'boite' but found I was seen as being very old fashioned by the young shop assistant who referred to a 'can' sounding like 'canne' which means a rod, as in 'canne à pêche' which is an often-mentioned 'false friend' for British people learning French as it means 'fishing rod' and not 'tin of peaches' as we would expect.

Another thing I notice from these photos is how interested I was in architecture and I shot images of what seem to be quite mundane, often very boring streets, it seems now, simply because I was struck by the buildings. You can see examples here and in subsequent postings.

Thursday 17th June 1999

Today I woke early and after breakfast, dozed. Then I went around the town, changed some money, got stamps and postcards. I looked around La Musée des Beaux Arts which had a range of paintings and local artifacts as the area has been occupied since Roman times and garrisoned with German troops. They also had stone work and kites.

I had tagliatelle at 'Le Petit Théatre', it was rather watery. I wrote postcards there and at 'Café Au Bureau' waiting for the cathedral to open. I looked around that, it is really bright and airy.

I then went back to the town hall which I had visited before lunch to go up in the belfry. This time I arrived for the guided tour of the underground tunnels built in the Middle Ages and used and extended by the British and New Zealanders during the Great War as here we are close to the front. I chatted with two British men, a father whose uncles had died in the Great War and his son. They were impressed by my cycling exploits. I then came back to sleep.

After that I finished my cards and went to 'Le Restaurant La Rapière' rather posh but reasonable, though I wasted money on an aperitif and hated the first course, a smelly sort of sponge and generally felt uncomfortable. I did not talk to the beautiful Oriental woman dining alone, though I doubt I would have done in Britain. I must remember how old, fat faced and scary I appear to people.

Back at my room I packed, it is getting harder to fit in each time. I continue to worry, now about: getting to Rouen; whether I should stay at Beauvais; arriving in any town on a Sunday; whether I can get back if I run short of money. I am not cut out for this sort of thing. I should have stayed at home.

Weather: Sunny and warm, some cloud especially later.

The Exterior of La Musée des Beaux Arts in Arras, June 1999

Views of the Front of Arras Cathedral, June 1999

The Interior of Arras Cathedral, June 1999

View from the Beffroi of the Town Hall of the Place des Héros in Arras, June 1999

View of Arras Cathedral from the Beffroi of the Town Hall, June 1999

Buildings around the Place des Héros in Arras, June 1999

I have realised now why I took this photograph, the building on the right with the two white cars outside it is the hotel that I stayed in.

10 Years On - Part 3 of Account of Cycling Northern France

I remember leaving St. Omer without breakfast, despite having paid for it, because the staff bar, the maid told me, had not got up. Something similar happened in a place I stayed at in 2000. This was the day I was most mistaken for a Belgian. At 'La Coupole' museum which was a V2 base built by the Germans and looks like something out of a James Bond movie, they asked me (in French) if I wanted the tape recorded tour of the museum in my own language and when I said yes they gave it to me in Flemish. Fortunately I was able to retune it to get the English commentary.

The riding was not that tough and reading these accounts I seem a pitiful cyclist, worn out by some hills. I know from recent experiences on a bicycle that these days I cannot cycle even a a kilometre without getting nauseous, but in those days I had been doing 60Km trips on a Sunday. Years later I found that I had been making mistakes with handling my diabetes while on cycling holidays, but I do not think that explains how weak I seem to have been on these trips. I suppose I was driven by guilt more than pleasure in doing these holidays. Also I knew that I could afford nothing more expensive. When you are paying £50 per week rent and that is tough an expensive holiday was impossible, but I felt I had to have one. Looking at how unhappy I was afterwards though, I increasingly think I was wrong.

I remember struggling to clear one of the last hills before Arras and being overtaken by a teenager asking me why I was finding it so hard. I did have too much luggage, but he was right that I was very poor at my chosen hobby. A year later a more sympathetic elderly man overtook me on a lesser hill but was not derisory; discretion often comes with age, but he was probably thinking the same thing and I felt as low as on this earlier occasion.

One thing I have noticed in scanning in these pictures, is how few people appear in my photos. Arras, shown here, has a population of over 45,000 people and Amiens, featured in subsequent postings, has over 135,000 people. Yet my images seem to show these towns after an attack by a neutron bomb with most of human life wiped out! To some degree this shows how quiet French towns can still be even in June. Given that August is the month when most French holiday, this was not a time when most people were away and the schools had not even broken up, so these pictures are from normal days and evenings in these towns.


Wednesday 16th June 1999

Today I got up promptly and after paying the maid for the room left at 09.00. I knew the route would be long but not how hilly, almost immediately I was up and down hills. Most I could climb without getting off.

I took a side route to see 'La Coupole' the V2 launching base and looked around the interesting musem. I got sandwiches there for lunch so could keep on cycling.

After Therouanne it was a straight road but tough with a series of plateaux, the worst were at Ames and Divion so I simply got off and walked.

I managed to reach Arras at 16.00 and went to the tourist office. I had not seen places like yesterday in St. Omer though there were a couple. I was too exhausted to look so I went to 'Le Diamant' a 2-star place they recommended, right on the main square. It is 280F per night which seems standard for town hotels. Arras is a pretty town.

I showered and slept for ninety minutes. Then I walked around the town which has busy stretches and quiet streets. I ended up at a Tunisian restaurant just next to the hotel. My wander helped me get familiar with the town. The restaurant was 'Djerba La Douce'. I had a coffee outside the 'Café Au Bureau' then came back to read and watch television.

Weather: Sunny and very hot.

La Coupole near St. Omer, June 1999

Entrance to La Couple, June 1999

Ruins beside Road into Arras, June 1999

Place des Héros in Arras, June 1999

'Le Diamant' was to the right of the picture on the right-hand side of the road you can see leading off in that direction.

Details of the Town Hall in Arras, June 1999

Dutch-style Building Facade, Place des Héros in Arras, June 1999

Shop Fronts in Place des Héros in Arras, June 1999

Buildings around La Grand' Place in Arras, June 1999