To Beauvais

June 5, 2022

Blathering

A couple of quick asides before getting to the events of the day. First, I want to include a link to Susan Carpenter’s post of the time we shared in Paris. It’s another perspective on how those days went, with a whole different set of photos (including of that scamp GBO, who hasn’t seen the light of day much lately).

Second, a follow-up comment about Castel Ecossais where we stayed in Senlis for the last two nights. Well, two comments actually. One is that as fine a place that it is, I wouldn’t really recommend it to bike tourists. You’d think that in an entire castle there’d be a tiny corner where your bike could stay safe and dry. But no, they stayed out in the yard, partly but not completely sheltered by some trees. An it absolutely poured last night, which is maybe why suddenly neither of our front shifters will respond this morning.

That, and the breakfast is too small, not really a biker’s breakfast. And there’s only one variety of jam, and a small serving of it at that. Sort of a half-jammer breakfast.

The point I wanted to make though was about the architect who designed the renovation of the house in the mid-eighteen hundreds. As I said, he was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. I didn’t recognize the name though, and didn’t realize he was the Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, one of the most prominent French architects of his era. He participated in the restoration of many prominent historical landmarks, especially ones desecrated during the French Revolution. He worked on restorations of Notre-Dame in Paris, Carcassonne, Sainte-Chapelle, Mont Saint-Michael, Amboise, and this small castle in Senlis. So that seems worth remembering.

Nice enough (we especially liked the pear shaped pear tart), but not exactly a biker’s breakfast.

Oh, and one more aside before we leave town: last night’s dinner. We elected not to dine at the Italian restaurant we had made reservations at after all, because they only had outdoor seating. Which was a problem because about a half hour before dinner the sky suddenly fell in - lightning and thunder, winds, a downpour, the whole catastrophe. We sat down briefly at a reasonably covered table before giving up on the idea and went looking elsewhere.

It’s not so easy finding a table at the last minute on a Saturday night, especially when everyone is being driven indoors. We did find exactly one slot at the restaurant next door, at 9:00 - a deal breaker for Rachael, who is normally starving by 7:30. She’d rather take a pizza up to the room than wait until 9. We kept looking though and found a creperie that would take us; but within five minutes of us being seated and they were already turning folks away, looking disappointed under their umbrellas in the downpour. We had a galette each, shared a salad and dessert crepe, and were happy to see that the river running down the street had drained dry when we stepped out again.

Today’s ride

Finally! You must have thought we’d never get back to the biking stuff.

Actually it wasn’t clear that there would be much biking today, with a forbidding forecast that threatened off and on rain and thunderstorms. The train is often an option in France on a rainy day, but the train doesn’t come in to Senlis. It does come to Creil though, only eleven miles to the west and right on our planned bike route. So there’s a bailout option if the weather turns foul - bike to Creil in time to catch the noon departure for Beauvais.

It’s nice to know there’s an alternative if we need it. Unfortunately it’s Sunday and there are only three runs in the schedule and only this one at a useful time. We plan our departure to make sure we’ll arrive in Creil before noon, just in case.

The ride west out of Senlis is similar to the ride in from the south, with several peaceful miles on long, quiet lanes through a large departmental forest. We’re businesslike, happy to be putting in dry miles as we keep up a steady pace and keep with our plan of reaching Creil before noon.

Leaving Senlis, dry for the moment. Our saddles are damp from their night outdoors though, and we’ll soon discover that neither of us can shift into our large chainring.

It’s a very peaceful ride this morning, riding through the broad Ermenonville Forest.

We climb very gradually for the first several miles to the crown of the forest. We’re on the evocatively named Forest Road of the Belle Croix.

It’s not much of a climb or summit and there are no views because we’re surrounded by forest. Still, we seldom pass up the chance for a summit shot.

The next four miles are more of the same, as we glide through the woods down to the Oise.

Crossing the Oise on the Passerelle Jean Biondi, just upriver from Creil. This quiet and safe crossing of the river is the main reason we’ve chosen this route.

We’re not in Oz, we’re crossing the Oise! (Your pronunciation hint for the day)

As per plan we make it to Creil before noon, barely. At 11:52 we’re stopped in front of the train station checking the weather report, but we’re probably too late anyway. If we had needed the train we’d be hard pressed to catch it this soon before departure. Fortunately the weather is holding for us and looks to stay dry for another three or four hours, so we ride on. The miles ahead are relaxed, easy riding as we follow the Therain upstream, a modest tributary of the Oise. We’re biking through what must have once been a broad marshy wetland, with large ponds on either side and villages every few miles. If it does rain we’ll have no trouble finding shelter on short notice.

Passing through Mello I’m attracted by this scene with its half timbered house. Rachael has just rounded the corner to the right, so she won’t be aware that I’m stopping and holding us up.

It’s a good thing I stopped, because otherwise I would have missed seeing the immense chateau rising behind us. I didn’t see it until I turned my head back to check for traffic before biking off.

Somewhere near Mouy we pass this striking unnamed ruin.

I wonder if this wasn’t a victim of the First World War.

A few miles on we round a bend and hear a siren in the near distance, then another. At the intersection ahead a small crowd is assembled and are gesturing for us to get off the road. Bike race! We stand on the bend and look down the road to the sight of motorcycles racing toward us, followed by a breakaway group of five riders. They pass, and a gap opens up long enough for me to hurriedly cross the road to join the other spectators for a straight view down the road. Rachael and I both have our videos working so we get both a side and head on view as the peloton races down the road, makes the turn and quickly disappears down the road we’ve just left.

It’s a flat stage so the bunched peloton of a hundred or more racers flash by in a matter of seconds.

It takes a few minutes until Rachael can cross the road and join us. She has to wait out the peloton and their train of support cars and then the stream of traffic that’s been held up waiting for the race to pass.

There’s enough support for the race - security officials controlling traffic, dozens of support vehicles and motorcycles, so I assumed it was a consequential race on the professional circuit; but no, it’s a minor four day stage race, a tour of the Oise that ends today in Beauvais, our destination for the night. If we’d gotten an earlier start we might have witnessed the finish.

La Ronde de l'Oise is a French stage cycling race held in the Oise department. Organized by the Union Cycliste de Liancourt Rantigny, it joined the UCI Europe Tour in 2007, in category 2.2. It is therefore open to French professional continental teams, continental teams, national teams and regional or club teams.

The skies are darkening and looking menacing by now, and the weather has suddenly shifted and we’re biking into a headwind. I half expect we’re going to get nailed in a thunderstorm before we make town, but we need to stop and eat something before we find ourselves in the midst of a full-blown food crisis. We pause for a quick few bites in front of the cemetery above Hermes and then start off again.

Not looking the best, especially with a headwind developing. We start keeping an eye out for emergency shelters in case they’re needed.

But the rains don’t come. While we were stopped the disturbance passed on, and now we’re gifted with a tailwind that blows us the final fifteen miles to Beauvais.

I’m stunned when we cross over the slight rise above Beauvais and see the Beauvais Cathedral ahead - a huge monument rising prominently above the town, it looks enormous. It also makes it easy to locate our hotel for the night.

Hotel de la Cathedrale, our stay for the night. Not sure where the name comes from.

The hotel is dark when we arrive, but when we dial the hotel a man says he’ll be right over. He’s home at a family gathering (it’s a holiday weekend, as Whit Monday is tomorrow), and stays around just long enough to show us our room, pour me a beer and serve Rachael a liter bottle of sparkling water that she downs in moments, and then he dashes back to his affair telling us to treat the hotel as our home. It’s perfect - for the next several hours we hang out, Rachael in our comfortable digs researching restaurants and I sipping my Alsatian brew in the lounge culling through photographs.

It’s Sunday night on a holiday weekend, and hardly anything appears to be open. Rachael finds what looks like it would be an excellent Italian nearby though, and I book a table through its website. When the time comes to leave though we see that it’s been booked for Tuesday, the day that came up by default. Rachael checks the restaurant’s website and sees that Google Maps has it wrong again and the restaurant isn’t open Sundays. Disappointing, so we go out and walk the streets to see what we can find.

We find Gustav!, a bar/brasserie that looks appealing so we grab an inside table. We have a terrible time making ourselves understood to the guy who sees us in though. One of the other guests helps us understand that he’s asking if we’re here for eats or drinks, but he’s speaking so fast and indistinctly that we can barely make out anything he’s saying. After we’re seated we check the reviews on this place and see that they’re generally terrible, especially regarding the staff.

The meal’s good enough though - a Caesar salad and surprisingly large slabs of salmon. Afterwards, pleased to see its not raining still, we step outside and head to the cathedral for a look. Almost immediately though we come to that Italian restaurant, diners eating outside beneath evocative ruins. It was open after all, and it’s their own website that was wrong. C’est La vie!

And the cathedral? It’s incredible, as is everything surrounding it. Pics to come.

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Ride stats today: 39 miles, 1,200’; for the tour: 2,413 miles, 114,800’

Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 2,441 miles (3,928 km)

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