Day 22: Beauvais to Lyons la Forêt

September 17, 2023

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Below is the view from our window, showing why the place is called Hotel de la Cathedrale! We really enjoyed our stay, partly because we had our friends Didier and Maria up from Paris, and much because of Tony, who was the only hotel staffer we encountered. Tony was friendly and cheerful both yesterday and today, despite some mild issues we presented him with. For example, this morning at 7:20 a.m. could not get through reception to reach our bikes to start getting them ready. Tony explained later that reception only opens at 7:30, but I pointed to the notice on our door, quoting 7:00. Ok, fine. Also with respect to the rather costly 12.50 euro breakfast, we negotiated Tony to make us eggs "sur le plat" and to bring cheese, ham, butter, etc. etc. These probably would not have happened otherwise, because it seemed only croissant, baguette, jam, and juice were otherwise on offer. Still it was more like being at Tony's home than in a hotel as we discussed what he could make or bring. It did turn out that Tony does actually own the place!

We went back by the Cathedral to pick up a shot of the bishop's palace, with the iconic donjons. There was a group of cyclists nearby, so we stopped to chew the fat.

Quite soon after we left town we noticed a lot of people parking and walking. Suspecting a market, we took a turn and headed for the action. It was a market, but of the boring non-food type. We only had a peek and left - too tough to fight our way all along the stalls.

Way off in a distant field, Dodie's telescopic vision spotted what appeared to be a pheasant. But my telescopic camera revealed this to be just a rooster. But hey, he made it into the blog nonetheless.

Very quickly we encountered our old "friend" the Trans Oise greenway. I was skeptical about how it would hold up, but in fact it zoomed us 30 km on a rail trail through forest it was us that left it rather than the reverse.

We had been thinking about the astronomical clock that we saw in the cathedral yesterday, and I remarked that such a device was a little strange to be in a church, since they were the guys that denied for so long that the earth orbits the sun. Dodie pointed out that by 1866 when the clock was installed the church had long accepted the heliocentric model. It turns out that that acceptance was in 1822, not so very long before. But Dodie also gave them credit for hanging in there, by having Jesus at the top of the clock, directing the goings on on the dials below.

I thought of this as we passed a very large amusement park, that had an artificial mountain with animals on it, and yes, Jesus at the top directing matters.

The rail trail continued, with buildings that clearly were former station houses.

We left the rail trail, continuing to follow our track, which had been set out for us by Google Maps, in this case. All went well until the track directed us to turn left, at the point your see below. We balked, and refused to head off into the forest like that. At this point Dodie's phone lost touch with most satellites, and as giving flaky ambivalent opinions on what to do next. Fortunately my phone (when dragged out of its bag) still had a grip on reality, and revealed that left turn as expected to be a faint dotted line through the forest. We went straight and headed for some "real" little white roads.

The reason our path was becoming a little dicey was that we had entered the Forêt Domaniale de Lyons, a 14,000 hectare section that had been a royal hunting ground since Henri I (1008-1060). It is the largest Beech forest in Europe. The forest and its royal fans would continue to play a role in our story for today, and we pushed on toward what turned out to be their favourite play village, containing our hotel.

We bust out of the forest and headed for Fleury La Foret, a nice town but not our final stop.

Fleury la Foret, was a pleasant stop. This was because it not only had a nice picnic table but also a bread vending machine. Not that we needed bread, but there was a spot behind this large machine ideal for a nature break!

Seven kms more and we rolled into Lyons la Foret. Just as the tourist literature we later picked up predicted, we were pleased and surprised to find ourselves in a well preserved medieval village with a lot of half timbered buildings. This was the location of our Hotel La Licorne (Unicorn Hotel). This was the only hotel we had been able to find in the region, and it was three times more expensive than our normal choice. On the other hand we understood we would have some sort of large apartment.

We led our bikes in behind the line of buildings, into an area where we guess the bike storage and/or our apartment was going to be. It certainly looked quaint and medieval back there!

We then sent me with our sacrificial credit card, into reception to make the usual arrangements. It turned out I had walked into the reception of the Michelin starred restaurant that they have, and in my not so formal outfit (it had rained and I was wearing a suit - just composed of yellow rubber pants, yellow rain jacket, yellow gloves, and yellow hat) I was quickly hustled out and over to hotel reception. My reception at reception was not so warm either, as I was informed that I was one hour early, needed to go play in traffic or something until the correct hour. To be fair, they did allow that I could use the pool if desired.

We took the opportunity to look around the town. A market was just wrapping up in a central shelter, but we had truly missed the action. I approached the packing up BBQ chicken lady, asking if she still had any hidden away, but she said it was all well and truly sold.

The shelter at the centre of town, where the market had been.

We later learned that a fortified castle had stood just here, but it was destroyed at the end of the Hundred Years War, in the 14th century. The market shelter is just where the castle courtyard had been. It is itself classified as a protected artifact.

Looking about the town, we took in the sights of the many interesting buildings. A pamphlet we later picked up describes fourteen of them. The striking one in this photo is called le Fresne. It dates from the 18th century and was transformed into an Anglo-Norman villa in 1910-14.

Le Fresne is famous as the hangout of composer Maurice Ravel between 1911 and 1922. He did some of his famous compositions here.

This is a vintage Peugeot 201, from the 30's.

Doubting that we would afford (or enjoy) the Michelin starred restaurant, we went to have a look at the menus of the three others that are around the square. The one pictured below is called the Cafe du Commerce, which sounds more like our social level. We put our bikes among those tables, and I strolled over to check out the menu. Immediately a man and a woman stood in the restaurant door, and delivered the message that (a) I can't park my bike there and (b) the kitchen is now closed. For some reason I get really irate when I stop my bike temporarily and get pounced on for that. In the background Dodie was advising that I should appear to not speak French. I think her plan is to confer some tourist impunity, coupled with not being able to comply with any demands I do not understand. But I chose to ream them out in their own terms. My bike is not "parked", it is "stopped". I do not necessarily want to eat from their kitchen but only to see the menu on the wall. This will only take a few seconds. Can they see their way clear to affording me that chance and courtesy, or is my bike really destroying their closed restaurant? Yes?, well thank you very much, ok I've seen it, so goodbye!

Looking now more carefully toward the Hotel de la Licorne, it seemed to me that the reception from which I had been unreceived might actually be the reception of a different hotel. Because look, there is Hotel de la Licorne (photo below). The door to the right should be reception. So we sent Dodie in that door. But Dodie also got quickly drop kicked out, back toward the original "reception". It turns out the Licorne folks own every hotel building in town, and "reception" controls the whole complex.

Eventually central reception designated a woman to lead us way down the hill to our room. I rather assumed they were choosing the furthest away spot on their campus where they could stash us. whether this was accurate or not, the spot turned out to be a whole cottage.

We also have our very own spiral staircase of death, like the Classens.

On the subject of where to go for the breakfast, the woman provided me with a map. I think we'll probably find where to go. Meanwhile we can now see that orange rectangle. That's central reception, and don't mess with them!

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,157 km (718 miles)

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