Soissons, Septmounts, Berzy-le-Sec FR 11-16 September We arrived in Soissons at lunch time on Monday. Our friend Geoff who had been walking in southern France joined us for a few days and brought baguettes for lunch. View of Abbaye Saint-Jean-des-Vignes We had a lovely mooring in the newly redeveloped harbour, although the power and water were not yet turned on. We had a fairly relaxing afternoon, with a BBQ for dinner on the back deck. The next morning Howard and I insisted that Karen and Geoff watch the people emptying the recycling bins. To their amazement they are much bigger than they look above ground. They were intrigued to watch the process of picking them up by a crane and dropping the contents into the truck. After that we got on our bikes to have a look around the town, using the map provided by the tourist information office. Soissons had been badly damaged in WWI and there were many signs of WWI damage as well as plenty of Art Deco around the town. Also the Vase of Soissons was a recurring motif. A little further out of town was the ruins of the Abbaye Saint-Jean-des-Vignes and the nearby modern building of La Cité de la Musique et de la Dance. That night was Karen's last night, and Geoff's first with us, so we went out for dinner. In the morning we went to the market based in and around the market hall. But I went via the Hotel de Ville and the nearby Abbaye St Léger. Around lunch time Howard and I headed to the station on our bikes and Karen left for the station in a taxi, leaving Geoff on the boat by himself. Karen was heading to Paris for the next leg of her holiday and we were taking a night away from the boat in Laon (see separate Laon blog post). Geoff was taking a rest day after walking about 400 kms, and getting his washing done. We returned on Thursday afternoon. Geoff and Howard vsited the St Léger museum, while I had a quiet afternoon. In the evening we went to see some of Soisson en Lumières. Here they lit up 5 different sites in Soissons using video mapping. Each had a program of 10-15 minutes which repeated. There was accompanying music and narration on an app, if you wanted it. Geoff and I couldn't download the app using our Australian phones and the internet version didn't work very well, but Howard had been able to download the app as he had changed his app store to be French. On Thursday night we saw the first 3 of the 5 sites. The first was the Hotel de Ville where I had to hold my camera up between the fence bars in order to get any good photos. The next site was the Abbaye St Leger which was just nearby. This time I was able to use my tripod. And finally the Eglise St Pierre. The next day we decided to take a ride to Septmont where there was the ruin of a castle which looked pretty cool in the photos. It was only about 7kms away, but there were some steep hills. We stopped for a drink at the local Tabac/Bar and then decided to take a detour on the way home to a small town called Berzy-le-Sec, which also had a ruined castle. When we arrived we found that there were people running workshops for school children on stone masonry, and also seemed to be doing some restoration work on the castle. It was quite interesting. From there we set off for home. Our plan was to have gallettes for dinner, but both gallette restaurants in town were closed so we chose another restaurant and had a very nice meal. Then we went to see the final 2 sites for the Soissons en Lumieres. The first of these was the Cité de la Musique et de la Dance. And finally the Pavillion de l'Arquebuse. Geoff left us on Saturday morning heading for the airport and then we set off ourselves to cruise towards Compiegne.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
|