Hostellerie Saint-Vincent Beauvais

Je pouvais partir directement à l'aéroport et m'envoler... mais au lieu de cela j'ai décidé de tester l'accueil des Français! Après un départ en TGV à 12h54 de Vannes, une escale à Paris le temps de changer de gare, mon terminus est à Beauvais en Picardie à 18h33, chez une demoiselle prénommée Anne-Laure. Arrivé à l'heure, mon hôte est là pour m'accueillir à la gare et m'amène chez elle. Elle a un gros chat siamois qui ...

... from Laon by train, you had to go down to Paris and then back up to Beauvais. Beauvais is about the same distance from Paris but west of Laon, so we had to travel in a V to get there. There must be a simpler way, maybe by bus, but we never figured it out. So we arrived in Beauvais around 2:40. We had about 3 hours to kill before we could take the bus to the airport. We checked out the movies theater, which was right next to the train station, but every movie ...

Vincent was waiting for us outside the Louvre and we were off to his home west of Paris. It is easy to understand Vincent's love for his home of Auvers-sur-Oise. Clean, quiet, and picturesque... As we arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, we saw the SCJ building where he works. From there, it was on to his home for lunch. Vincent and Rose "wined ...

I took the Eurostar train to Paris on Thursday afternoon right after class. It was a great way to travel and it was a good way to see the countryside as well! I got to the train station and it was night time and I needed to wait for Steph which was a little intimidating to wait by myself but she got there and showed me the wayback to her place. On Friday, Steph had an excursion for class so I decided to go to Versailles while she was busy ...

... walk out onto the street to find yourself in a street full of pouring rain! Today the group went to visit a few chateaus, so I got to see this cycle all day long...teasing sky, light sprinkle, dark and dreary, pouring rain, bright sunny rays, cloudless sky, clouds roll in and then go back to sprinkling...ominous looking, then rain. The Chateau de Chantilly is located in one of the largest forests near Paris, Le Massif de Trois Forets. The chateau holds one of the finest museums of ...

... and it made our transition to France very easy with an English speaking host and Bernard (a Frenchman) who also spoke English well. The next day Chris and Bernard went for a drive to see the local area and Chris decided to hire a car as we thought we would spend most of our time training into Paris but it turns out there were so many things to do locally. The kids and I walked with Lorna to the local supermarket and did a bit of ...

I have always been interested in France. Also in the most beautiful villages of France. One of them is Gerberoy. Close (300 km./180 miles) to my home we went to visit it. It was desolated and abandonned until Henri-Eugene le Sidaner decided to reside there. He was a painter and other artists came and restored the village to its beauty it is now.

... the highest one.   We arrived in the sleepy town of Beauvais at around noon, when not a single soul or car was in sight.  We parked and looked around, wondering if we really were alone, half expecting tumbleweed to start rolling by.  The sight of the massive church distracted us from the solitude, and we approached silently ...

... turned up after the the thunderstorm had finished (typical!) and we went back into town and caught the next train to Paris. It's amazing that I have wanted to go to Paris for years and then I go twice in the space of 3 months! Paris was very very hot. The heat was oppressive, especially on the metro. But we managed to climb the Eiffel tower (on foot - very exhausting ...

... Paul and I were scared to death on a ride that took you up way higher than the trees then plummeted you to the ground, "I want to get off!!!" was repeated several times... We had a really relaxing time and Michelle, Austin and family ensured we had a fantastic start to our trip - Thank you!!!