The River Oise

Leaving Andresy we turned up the Oise River, which forms the southern link of the river and canal route from Belgium and the Netherlands and also from the Atlantic ports such as Calais and Dunkirk. At this time we plan to travel about 100 kilometres north and will turn off to head further East along the Aisne River. The countryside is attractive and heavily forested. The land is predominantly flat so that there are only seven locks. All have two chambers, providing one lock which is larger and deeper and so will accommodate laden barges; the "little" lock is still quite sizeable and was the one to which we were normally directed, usually to join an empty barge, riding high, sometimes by ourselves. We rarely had to wait for a lock which is surprising given how busy they are. The river traffic is quite heavy with commercial barges, usually consisting of two joined together to form a length of 80 to 100 metres.

The graves of Vincent Van Gogh and his brother
There were good stopping places at regular intervals along the Oise and we were able to visit several delightful towns. The first was the town of Auvers sur Oise. Those acquainted with the history of art (not us, I must say) will recognise this as the town where Daubigny, Corot, Cezanne and Pissaro came, attracted by the quality of light along the Oise. Perhaps we did not fully appreciate what drew them as the sky was uniformly grey. Then again, maybe this is perfect light for impressionist painters. The most famous contribution to the town's art history was van Gogh's death there. He lodged in an inn in Auvers for the last 70 days of his life and in that time painted 70 works, copies of which have been placed at the scene represented, dotted all over the town. Auvers is beautifully preserved so that most of the landscape and buildings are still as they were in 1890. After this flurry of activity van Gogh shot himself and died in his lodgings, now a Michelin starred restaurant. He is buried in the town cemetery, together with his  brother Theo. Many other artists who lived and died there also have graves dotted around the cememtery.

The next stopping place, Beaumont, was not as smart and neat but had a significant history back to Gallo- Roman times. Then we stopped at Creil where heavy rain prevented us from exploring fully but an early morning walk around town revealed the Hotel de Ville with an attractive garden including vegetable and herbs patches. As with so many things we stumble across, the story behind these patches remains a mystery- were they for education, were they a small community garden or did they belong to the Town Hall or a member of staff? Our grand-daughter was fascinated by the smells of lavender, thyme, sage and spearmint.

Mary's Birthday Party- lots of fruit!

Our final stopping place along the Oise was Compiegne, a city important in French history, though probably our main memory of Compiegne will be as the town where we celebrated our grand- daughter's second birthday, with balloons, party hats and candles on her birthday cake.  

The Emperor's Bedroom
More importanly in the history of the world, in the Abbey, whose cloister is still standing, five kings of France were consecrated, the first in the 9^th century. Later kings enjoyed hunting in the forests and the Chateau was improved by Louis XV and then by Napoleon 1st and Napoleon 3rd. This is where Joan of Arc was captured. Two significant  memorials, one a true to life deportation car, recall the 45,000 prisoners deported from the railway station here to death camps in Germany during the Second World War.

Mary waters our garden

Gardens of the Chateau of Compiegne

Ruins of the very old(12^th C) Donjon (Compiegne)

The Church at Compiegne

Hotel de Dieu (Compiegne)