Gosh that shows some times when Gurgle maps led me astray though the back and forth in Giverny was trying and failing to find a hotel or B&B for the night as I was very tired by the time I got there. I remember some pretty snooty looks at me and the bike and I had to give up and cycle on to a particularly horrible camp site which was reached along a lethal pebbly, gravelly track on which I remember going over and scraping my knee as I eventually lost the tired battle to keep Toto (who wasn't yet Toto) vertical. Rude campsite staff and a toilet block that badly needed disinfectant and a power wash. I hope it's improved!
However, I started in Beauvais which I really didn't remember from 1980. It was a real shock and looking at the images I am horrified again that it had left so little imprint on my memory banks.
My images are pretty poor and it's interesting to reflect that I was using a digital camera but one that really struggled with the contrast range, which was a pretty serious challenge across the whole ride as by now I was riding into often cloudless skies and bright sun. My recollection is that I didn't get a drop of rain until I was on the hill down into Compostela. The contrast problem was particularly severe inside churches with plain windows. I could probably go some way to correct this by tinkering with the images but I confess I am not going to make the time for that!
This actually gives a pretty good idea of the outside of the cathedral.
It interests me that, as was the case ten years ago, I look at that and go "Oh yes, that's Beauvais isn't it? Amazing!" but that's recognition memory not recall, and again I forget the whole of the exterior and pretty much all that's inside. Though this time I did remember that inside was shored up by more timber than I'd ever seen inside a cathdral!
It is a tight forest of verticals.
I loved the way that a cylindrical top section and spire is hidden in all that rectilinear thrust for the skies.
But what about that fallen masonry just lying there?!
As you go round the cathedral there is this lovely door.
But further round there is this, to my mind surprising, juxtaposition.
And this bizarre tiled facade.
I didn't remember any of that strangeness and had forgotten it again. Hm, this is quite an educational trip down memory lane.
The exterior also offers these lovely bits ... (click to expand the images) ...
... and the interior soars skywards again ...
... and has this amazing clock ...
... and how's this for a pulpit? ...
... but the building was shored up with timber in a way I swear wasn't true in 1980 ...
I remember feeling a bit dazed by it all and consoled myself with some fuel.
... oops, all gone before I remembered to take an image!
And then I was off across farming land that rapidly became very flat megafarm stuff. The flatness was OK and the road surfaces were good but the monotony, the dryness and the huge lorries weren't that much fun.
As a result I was tired, dusty and wanting a bed not the tent, blow up mattress and sleeping bag but there was no room to be had in Giverny which was, of course, swarming with tourists so I had to ride on as the start of today's story said. I am pretty sure that slept well in the end!