Today started with a moderately early evacuation of Amiens. I think the events of the previous day had me in mind to get out as fast as possible. Not that Amiens is a terrible place, it just has a terrible bus station. I was hoping to make sure the train exit to Compiegne went more smoothly. Fortunately it did. I got to the station by about 7:40 and the next train to Compiegne left at 8:05. They said I didn’t need a ticket since I could validate a day on my pass (something I was expecting to do anyway). So I waited the few minutes till the track (voie) was announced on the big board and then got my way to the train. I think I had a few moments wondering if I was on the right one until the sign in the train lit that its final terminus was Compiegne. The train ride took a bit over an hour and a half and was fairly uneventful. It went mostly through farm country again but there were a few cool sights to see. I am convinced every town or city in France has a very large church (eglise).
Arriving at Compiegne there was one special thing that had been different from all the previous days except Provins. There was actual sun in the sky indeed as I started using the cell phone GPS to navigate to the hotel (I saw the taxi stand but since the map didn’t look horrible I figured I would try the walk) and I started to sweat profusely on the walk wearing a jacket and two layers. I shed the jacket as quick as I could. I am still amazed that people around here were still wearing winter jackets in this weather. And this was still happening after noon when the sun was full on. Anyway, I got to the hotel which turns out to be about 1.75 miles from the train station or so (maybe a little more) in around an hour with the suitcase in tow and the fact that the GPS stopped me about 300 yards short of the actual destination which caused me to dig around for probably about 20 minutes before I took a guess and found the place. The Hotel Campanile Compiegne is far outside of town and is more of what we would call a motel traditionally than a hotel. That is to say that it is a series of single story (or two story) buildings that have several room all with their own parking and external exits rather than central building. The room is reasonably sizeable but the beds are two sub-twins again rather than the large comfy bed from the Ibis. In any event the bathroom is full sized and has a tub with shower so I may soak my feet along the way. When I got here just past 11am they checked me in with no issues. I moved over the room and did a small unpacking and charged the phone for a few minutes because it was giving me the squawks because I had used the GPS so much to get to the room. Still I didn’t want to eat lunch at the hotel so I decided to charge it a little then hope it held out for me.
I walked back into town, which was much easier without the suitcase and backpack. From there I made a reasonably quick visit to the Church of Compiegne which appears to be something from the 12th century again and was in a similar state of unkempt as the church in Provins. Nonetheless it was very large and you could tell that a lot of expense went into building it even if the upkeep was a little bit limited. I think the lady was telling me they were closing the doors at noon but I am not sure. I was basically about to leave anyway. No pictures from inside again.
From there I moved on to the Palace of Compiegne. I however was told the Royal Apartments were closed until 1pm and then went and had lunch across the street. This turned out to be pork medallions in a light sauce with a hint of ginger and potatoes au gratin. I enjoyed it a lot. I also had ice cream for dessert due to the heat but forgot to take a picture of that item. It was 3 small scoops of vanilla, chocolate and pistachio ice creams. They were good and hit the spot just right.
After finishing I headed back to the palace and finally go to take the tour. This squat structure is not really as grandiose as many palaces are but like the Royal Palace in Stockholm it housed a fairly cool set of Royal Apartments with all the period furniture and art and so on. I think the Palace at Skoklosters was more interesting overall (if partially for external appearance) but this one was worth a visit. Napoleon had set it up as an autumn residence during his rule as well as previous kings Louis the XV and XVI using it as well. Most of the décor was set from Napoleon’s usage though a couple rooms due to being destroyed for various reasons (fire, WWI , WWII) had been rebuilt to the Monarch’s period instead. They had a self guided audio tour that I used through it. For whatever reasons though they reversed the order from back to front for the direction you go through versus the direction the audio guide logically follows. That said it really didn’t affect things much and I really enjoyed going through it. I would say it also reminded me of the royal apartments of Windsor Castle from way way back on my first international trip from high school.
While on the tour I noticed a huge gardens behind the palace with people hanging out so when I finished inside I made that my next goal. A couple turns around the palace and I had found them without issue. I spent a bit of time walking through them and with the shade of the trees and trellises it all turned out to be a very pleasant amount of time spent. From there I walked back towards the center of town and found the town hall which I took a few pictures of then went into the bureau de tourisme. There I found that indeed I should be able to take a bus to Pierrefonds tomorrow and that it leaves from platform 27. I decided from here to walk back to the station and see if I could scope this out. I think I figured out where the bus should be and I found the ticket office to purchase the tickets.
After that it was just past 4pm so I was in a zone where I needed to decide what to do. I had walked a lot during the course of the day so I chose to return to the hotel where I would have to have dinner there (since it is in the middle of nowhere and I would be too far from town). On the way I found a butcher and bought a beer and an orange soda from him. He was very nice and spoke English very well. He said he had been studying it for 14 years. He was very welcoming and wished that my trip in France was very pleasant. I told him overall it had been and that I really liked Compiegne so far. Continuing on I got back to the room with relative ease and sat down to the beer and some of the writing I had to do for this before relaxing until I could eat dinner.
I watched a couple episodes of a British TV show I had on my computer ( No Heroics for those who care I am all caught up on that) then went over to the restaurant for dinner. I arrived at about 7:20 and was the only one there at the time but the place was pretty well full by the time I left an hour or so later. I had penne l’arribiatta, 2 Affligem and an espresso in the course of the time I was there. This time no one even pretended to speak English but somehow we managed to communicate ok. I can actually understand a lot more than I can speak which I guess helps a little with some pointing and so on. In any event the penne was cooked properly. There wasn’t a lot of sauce but what it had was spicy enough for me. It had a kick that hung around for a little while anyway. The Affligem were also Blondes and I enjoyed them. The espresso was reasonable as well. This will all be charged to the room on my way out (the room is already paid for so I should only have to settle for any meals I have here). I skipped the entre (salad course) and dessert as well because I already had the ice cream early and the salad bar did look good but I wasn’t in the mood for it. Fortunately some of the other people that came in skipped the salad bar so I didn’t look totally alone on this one. After that it was back to the room where I found I had a security shade that totally blocks light out. Might be easier to sleep than normal tonight even with the sub-twin bed.
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