Exploring Northern France
With our rental car, we’re free to explore the countryside of northern France. Traveling by car enables us to discover lesser-known sights and stop at interesting towns that come along during our drives.
If you can confidently handle a stick and navigate a slew of roundabouts, you can drive in continental Europe (only the UK and Ireland are on the other side of the road from the States). Gas is much more expensive but the tiny cars get great mileage. You wouldn’t want to try to fit an F-150 on these roads anyway!
On our previous trip to Belgium in the fall of 2017, we discovered Trappist beers and visited the Abbey of Saint Sixtus to sample its top-rated Westvleteren 12. This time, we headed for the Scourmont Abbey near the Belgian border town of Chimay for its namesake brew.
Abbeys tend to be located in quiet, rural settings for the isolation of the monks. We traversed narrow country lanes across the French-Belgian border, dodging tractors and cows until we rolled up to Chimay HQ. Of course after that journey, we had to sample a plate of the monk cheese with our beers.
Alas, not all abbeys churn out Trappist beer. Back across the border in France, we hiked around the imposing Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache Abbey. The church, cloister and outbuildings trace back to the twelfth century and were in various stages of crumbling grandeur. If only they had beer as an income source…
Further south, we discovered the tiny village of Parfondeval and its fortified church. These churches served as defensive fortresses in addition to places of worship. Immediately inside the entry, I ducked under a low stone opening and then climbed a steep spiral staircase to a secure upper chamber.
Back in the Middle Ages, at the first sign of trouble, the church bell would ring out to alert nearby villagers. You’d drop what you were doing, grab the kids and barricade inside. If you were further out working in a field, you were at the mercy of the marauders. I don’t imagine they’d open the gates, no matter how much you pleaded.
Continuing our journey south toward Laon, we stopped to explore Pierrepont. Every French town has a war memorial prominently located near its center. Initially erected to commemorate the Great War from 1914–1918, most have additional plaques and inscriptions added a generation later for World War II.
In Pierrepont, we noted a civilian casualty listed among the military dead. Therese Barreau was just 19 when she was killed during a bombing raid of nearby Laon on the day Germany began its invasion of France: May 10, 1940.
The town we surveyed today had been reduced to rubble during World War I from the 1918 photos on display. This memorial in a small French town summed up the primary reason we have the European Union: to bind France and Germany together economically so another war between the historical adversaries would be unthinkable.
The following day, we drove southwest from Laon and stopped to explore the impressive ruins of L’Abbaye d’Ourscamp. Founded in 1129, the soaring pointed arches were unmistakably Gothic.
Ourscamp Abbey was among the most important in the north of France. More than 500 monks lived here and they owned a large amount of land in the region. But monasteries in France were closed after the French Revolution.
Heading further south toward Paris, we spent several hours in the forest near the city of Compiègne. Here, in a clearing, the Armistice of November 11, 1918, was signed in Marshall Foch’s railcar sealing Germany’s defeat in World War I.
During World War II, Hitler ordered the railcar moved to exactly the same location for the signing of the second “armistice at Compiègne”, on 22 June 1940; this time with Germany victorious.
It was surreal to walk in the same spot so much history had taken place.
After a full day, we returned to our home base in Laon. At night, the cathedral’s belfries, which can be seen for miles, are lit blue. This is the view tonight outside our windows as we listen to college football games online back home:
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