This is a three-centre tour organised by
Art Pursuits. Two nights in Chartres
are followed by one night in Amiens and two in Reims. Aside from the cathedrals
in those cities we also visit Saint Denis in Paris,
Saint Remi in Reims, Noyon, and Beauvais, as well as the Taittinger
Champagne house for a tour of their cellars and a tasting.
We were travelling on the Eurostar this time so there was no need for an
overnight at Heathrow for a crack-of-dawn start. But then the tube train drivers
called a strike. Which was why I felt more comfortable booking the night before
at the DoubleTree Hilton in Pentonville Road. This was a bind, but I have long
had an ambition to stay in a central London hotel. Weirdly the cheapest
room was not the usual double but a double with a single, which the website said
was on an upper floor and had city views. It lied. After checking in I took a walk revisiting
places from my youth, like Chapel Street, where I used to come shopping with my mum, the pub we used when I
was at grammar school and my mate lived nearby, the square where I used to
come to the cinema and Pizza Express with my first girlfriend, etc. I bought a
cinnamon bun too, which we didn't have in my day.
Tuesday
2nd
After walking from the hotel I met up with Julie and Richard and the group in
front of the departure gates at St Pancras. The security and new passport-check
business went smoothly, with no passport-stamping though. I set off the beeper on
the arch and, making conversation while the man rubbed me down with his sensor
doodad, I mentioned being told at Heathrow that a tissue would set off the
alarm. He said, and I quote, 'That's a lie!'
The 09:31 Eurostar got to Paris Gare du Nord in no time, thanks to some
entertaining and enlightening conversation in the group around our table.
From Gare du Nord a coach took us to St Denis, in a somewhat grimy outskirt of
Paris. It's full of tombs, being a royal burial place. But it's most famous for its claim to being the first
example of Gothic architecture, thanks to Abbot Suger. Good stained glass too,
but it's confusing in its mixture of original, remade and 19th-century.
We then spent a couple of hours on the coach in the rush hour getting to
Chartres, and the the Grand Monarque hotel. After a little time to settle in we
regrouped for fizz and our first meal. Cold asparagus soup for all, cooked
crunchy veggies with a dome of rice for me, and desert was a fluffy meringuey
thing.
Wednesday
3rd
Breakfast was fine, if even trickier to find stuff than usual, and no muesli as
such, but one could add stuff to oat flakes, like corn flakes! There was a nice
slicey cake called a Pelegrino, which was filled with honey and
nuts and was either a specialty of Chartres or of our hotel, depending on which
website one consulted.
At 9.00 we strolled to Chartres Cathedral, which already had groups gathering.
In the morning we did the exterior, mostly the portal sculptures. We had a hot
beverage (hot chocolate was my choice, due to the cold) half
way through.
After lunch (onion soup topped by a cheesy toast slice) our afternoon was
devoted to the interior. The recently found and displayed remains of the screen
we did first, then the interior generally, and the rather special stained glass in
particular.
There were ten of us on an independent meal in the evening. I had a burger
végétarien which severely challenged my 'only cowards eat burgers with a
knife and fork' rule, some rosse beer and a sweet flan, or maybe it was a
cheesecake - the arguments, and tastings, took up the later part of of the
evening.
Thursday
4th
We checked out after breakfast, at 8.15, for a three-hour coach trip to Beauvais.
Regular readers will know of my trauma on a previous trip at having to sit
amongst people happily eating foie gras, surely the cruellest meat product,
banned in many countries, including mine. Well, tonight's menu in Amien includes
foie gras stuffed inside some poor dead little bird. Am I going to bail, and
thereby miss a meal I've paid for, and have to pay to eat somewhere else?
Reaching Beauvais, at last, around midday, we made for Saint Etienne de Beauvais
which was closed but is an interesting Romanesque/Flamboyant mish-mash. This was
also the first of several occasions when small black flies took a liking to my
yellow jacket.
After an independent lunch we were all around and into the unfinished Beauvais Cathedral
(Saint-Pierre) an even more impressive mish-mash, with props, iron bars and
bracing bits all over the place, reflecting it's fally-downy history. The small
church of Notre Dame de la Basse Œeuvre is still attached to the west end. It
was the cathedral before the construction of Saint-Pierre and is very plain. It
stands in for the cathedral's unbuilt nave.
The coach then took us to Amiens and our
second hotel, the Hotel Mercure Cathedral, for one night. I did bail on the
group meal, resorting to the city’s very presentable branch of Burger King for a Veggie
Whopper.
Friday
5th
After breakfast, which was nicer, with more choice, than the
Chartres hotel's, we checked out, had our luggage stored, and strolled around
and into Amiens Cathedral. A harmonious building, with some fascinating art and
details, which became my favourite of the trip.
The quatrefoil below depicts the ruins of Nineveh,
mentioned in the prophecy of Zephaniah - Herds shall lie down in her midst;
even the owl and the hedgehog will roost atop her pillars.
After an independent lunch with Richard (falafel on a bed of crunchy chopped and
dressed
vegetables with salad, and a beer) we returned to our hotel to collect our
luggage and coach it to Noyon, and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, which is earlier
in date but another church that's harmonious rather than being a jarring mix. With a
fine half-timbered library attached.
We then continued by coach to Reims to check in at the Continental Hôtel, our
last hotel, this also being where we stayed on an Art Pursuits trip
to Champagne in 2023. An evening at leisure, with a group of four of us eating
at the Apostrophe. They only had one vegetarian option, but at it least it was
a tasty risotto.
Saturday
6th
After figuring out the idiosyncrasies of another breakfast room we walked to
Reims Cathedral (Notre Dame), doing the exterior in the morning. The central
doorway was having work done and so was not to be appreciated. But that still
left more than enough doorway sculpture, buttresses, pinnacles, etc. to keep us
occupied. The various styles of drapery on the figures, and their movement, were
particularly appreciated.
Like yesterday evening's restaurant our independent lunchtime venue only had a measly one
veggie option, but it was what I fancied - the cheese-toast-topped onion soup.
After lunch we did the cathedral interior which was interesting but not, for me,
lovable. The stained glass in the east end is all modern, including one by
Chagall, but was not for me, at all. We then had a short coach hop to the Abbey of
Saint Remi - Romanesque with gothic additions, and much charm.
After a hefty afternoon rest we reconvened in the hotel reception to walk to our
final evening meal at Au Petit Comptoir. Julie had been told that I would be
consulted fully on my preference amongst tasty vegetarian options on offer, so the
representative tonight brusquely reporting that I'd be given a plate of
vegetables was a little disappointing. But this turned out to some nicely cooked
carrots and bits of chopped veg on a bed of tasty lentils encircled by a green
foam, and lo it was good. As was the apple pie and ice cream.
As this was our last meal there was a good chance that one of the men would get
up and thank the tour leaders. This can either be trying and tedious or tersely
witty. A group of us had discussed this phenomenon earlier in the week. But
unprecedentedly tonight two of the women in the group got up to thank Richard
and Julie in turn. Amazeballs!
 Sunday
7th
After a relaxed breakfast we checked out, stored our luggage, and were coached
back to Saint-Remi, for the Museum this time, concentrating on some good Roman
stone stuff. Then it was a short walk to the Taittinger Champagne house for a
tour of their cave-like cellars and a short tasting, which was preceded by the
most pretentious slick promo video ever. After the quaffing we returned to our hotel
for a light canapé brunch, with two veggie options, one luckily being falafel. A
slice of raisin bread with a pale brown dollop and a bit of strawberry was
deemed to be sweet and meat free. After I'd tried one we learned that the blob
was fois gras. Ironic, and revolting, or what?
Afterwards our coach took us to the Champagne-Ardenne TGV station for a train
which took us to Paris Gare de l’Est from which we walked to Gare du Nord and
after the usual queuing shenanigans the Eurostar to London St Pancras went well.
The memorable, and worth remembering, word of this trip was
Cephalophore,
a martyr depicted carrying his severed head.
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St Denis
Chartres
Beauvais, the offerings (see left) were in the bottom left hand corner of
the
panel above the altar seen above.
Amiens
Noyon
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