Normandy to Ardennes

From Giverny we drove north to Beauvais, stopping in an aire close to the city centre. The aire was free, and a good stopping off place. Beauvais was probaly once a lovely old town, early last century. The centre was destroyed in 1940, and the central area  rebuilt in a uniform, bland 1950s low-rise style. Even on a Saturday night the place was utterly deserted; it felt godforsaken. The cathedral survived WW2 bombardment, but it looks half-built anyway. It represents the point where the High Gothic desire to praise God by building tall outstripped thirteenth century architect's engineering know how. The vaulting kept collapsing, and by the time they had worked out how to prop it up, the bottom had fallen out of Christendom's economy, and the Black Death halved the population. So Beauvais cathedral remains a slightly hilarious looking ecclesiastical folly.

Next day we drove across the north of France, along the valley of the Aisne, past Compiegne and Soisson, towards Reims. It's hardly the most beautiful part of France, the villages we passed through consisted of a straggle of dull concrete faced houses interspersed with more modern steel clad boxes - warehouses, small factories, Lidl's and Intermarche.

The featureless plain was given over to agro-business and wind farms. Just how bored we got is demonstrated by our over-joyed reaction at passing a McCann's frozen chip factory near Vic-sur- l'Aisne. On the outskirts of Reims we stopped for a coffee and a muffin at McDonald's in order to use the wifi, update the blog, and sort a few emails.

Then on-wards, across the endless wheat fields of Champagne. Only when we reached the border with Ardennes did the landscape become less monotonous. The villages now were built in a golden coloured stone, settled in a rolling country of open fields and mixed woodland. Eventually the road dropped down into the valley of the Meuse in a series of sweeping S bends. We found the aire at Stenay's Port de Plaisance, paid the 8 euros at the Capitannerie. It caters for about 50 vans, has electrical hook-up, a shower block and free wifi of sorts. As for Stenay, it looks pleasant and worthwhile exploring a bit more tomorrow.