Bits and pieces from my short break to France

The village had its castle as early as 922. It was completed with a keep tower, a hospital and a college church in 1015. Rebuilt in the 15th after being burned to the ground by the English, the square tower still holds a treasure in its chapter room. From the church, the walk along the wall goes round Gerberoy, on the eastern part of the city, stands the place where Henri IV was tended to after being wounded at the battle of Aumale in 1592. Henri Le Sidaner, a post-impressionist painter, was seduced by the silent Gerberoy and created an Italian-style gardens still visible from the walls.

And just one mile downhill, in Lachapelle-sous-Gerberoy, this pretty castle is situated ...




... and turning our view backwards, we see actually (kind of) three manor houses :wink:

just lookit all those old places

Yes, OLD Europe, that's how (part of) our continent is called. :wink:

is there a New Europe?

Well, Walter, it's beautiful. Reminds me of fairy tales.

According to the US government: yes.

Looks like a 'real' big church, isn't it?

But it actually is just one small part of a giant (planned) cathedral:

Before showing the other photos photos, I'd really like to post some (copied and pasted) text, which explains the cathedral's history:

The cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Beauvais isn't famous so much for its saring beauty, but for the day it came crashing down.

Cathedral building in medieval France was plagued by turf battles. Without a stable government, it's hard to get long-term projects like cathedrals built without interruption. At first, the cathedral was going to be a symbol of French unity and a masterpiece of architecture. But as the project moved forward, people fell out of favor, money became tight, and priorities changed. Later the cathedral project was reinvigorated. In fact, under Bishop William of Grez, an extra 16 feet were added to the height, to make it the tallest cathedral in Europe. That seemed like a good idea at the time. But in 1248, the choir section collapsed. Money was diverted from the rest of the project to repair that section, and the nave was never completed. Academics like to exercise themselves over the reasons for the collapse, but its affects are plain. Enthusiasm for the project declined, and while up close the cathedral is a magnificent piece of architecture, from a distance it is clearly a shell of what it could have been, lacking even a steeple. reality, the cathedral once had a tower, but like the cathedral nave, it, too collapsed.
> 1225 - Construction begins under the direction of Bishop Miles of Nanteuil.
> 1232 - Construction is completed on the first phase.
> 1238 - Construction begins under the direction of Bishop Robert of Cressonsac.
> ~1250 - Construction continues under the direction of Bishop William of Grez.
> 1284 - The cathedral partially collapses.
> 1384 - The choir is repaired.
> 1564 - Work begins on the church tower.
> 1569 - The church tower is completed.
> 1573 - The church tower collapses.



A more detailed essay about the church's history can be found HERE (highly recommended, not only for head's of history departments :wink: ).

Two exceptional clocks can be seen inside the Cathedral:
a Medieval Clock dating from the 14th century originally designed to signal religious services. It is probably the oldest chiming clock still in working order.

The astronomical clock is a fine example of the clock making techniques of the late 19th century. It has over 90,000 moving parts. Over 12 metres high and 6 metres wide, it is set in a Roman-Bizantine style case. The façade has 52 dials showing the position of the planets sunrise and sunset, the phases of the moon, the tides, etc. At each hourly bell, 68 automats at the top of the clock re-enact a scene from the last judgement.

Well, certainly you all know that they have Euros in France now and don't use Francs anymore.
So I can't tell you, this shows the price list/menu of my hotel :wink:

It's actually on this house in Mers-les-Bains




There are dozens of more houses of the art deco time there ...



... and even the town hall is from that period:

Beautiful pictures Walter. You have seen quite a lot in this relative short time. The photos are really outstanding, and
it shows what a good time you've had in good "old" France.

Hmmm. Thanks.

In Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, there are a lot more of those art-déco houses.



But this place really is overcrowded by tourists. Besides - as to be seen - they built -IMHO- some really nasty new apartment houses besides those wonderful old ones.

walter wrote : "Well, certainly you all know that they have Euros in France now and don't use Francs anymore. "

does this mean that i can't use my 50 centimes coin left over from our shore visit in france in 1998 any more ? there goes my spending money ! hbg

ps. also still have some liras, austrian groschen and german pfennig left ... all gone ... sob