Amiens, Arras, and Bruges

Thursday, October 16, 2014

After checking out of our sweet apartment in Honfleur, we took the Pont de Normandie, the world's largest cable-stayed bridge, which crosses the Seine to the industrial port of Le Havre.  We didn't visit Le Havre, which has been totally rebuilt after World  War II, but instead headed to the northernmost part of France. During the Middle Ages, this area, along with parts of Belgium and The Netherlands, was known as Flanders, and many in the area still speak Flemish.

Today's first stop was at Amiens to see its magnificent cathedral of Notre Dame (of course!)  This is the largest Gothic church in France, twice the size of Notre Dame in Paris, and what a "WOW!" it is.  The facade is highly decorated with hundreds of statues, scenes, and filigree, all of which was originally in technicolor.  Now, during the summer months, an evening sound and light show recreates the former colorful exterior.  The nave is almost impossibly long and high; the vaulted ceiling simply soars. There is a tremendous amount of statuary, carved in both polychrome wood and stone, frescoes, war memorials, stained glass windows, a labyrinth in the center of the nave, and -- the head of John the Baptist!!  Even more amazing is the fact that, except for the spire, the cathedral was completed in just 85 years in the 13th century; talk about hard to beat!

Leaving Amiens, our drive took us through countryside dotted with many war cemeteries dedicated to thousands of French soldiers and their allies who lost their lives during the first world war's Battle of the Somme; these are Flanders Fields.  Here, as well as in Normandy and Brittany, every small town square has a monument honoring its war dead.  Again, the past is always present here.

We made a brief stop in Arras for a stroll around its two adjacent squares, the Grand'Place and the Petite Place.  They are each ringed by buildings topped with Dutch-style curved gables and fronted by arched and covered arcades, somewhat reminiscent of the porticoes of Bologna.

In short order, we crossed into Belgium and headed for beautiful Bruges, our headquarters for the next four nights.  We have another great apartment right in the old town of this "Venice of the North."  We took a stroll along some of the canals and into the large Market Square before heading back for dinner at "home."