Beauvais France - airport, maps & guide

Beauvais France - Airport and Map

Beauvais is somewhat in the middle of nowhere, 60km south of Amiens and 81km north of Paris in the flat agricultural area near the Somme. Funnily enough for this part of France, Beauvais was crushed during WWI and II only to be rebuilt in a drab, uninteresting style afterwards and, you guessed it, the town boasts a fine example of a Gothic cathedral, Cathédrale St-Pierre.

There is a funny tale behind the building of the cathedral, at least, to redeem this otherwise dull town. After the Carolingian cathedral was partially ruined by a fire in 1255 the bishops wanted to build something to outdo local rivals by making it taller than any other church. However, the vaults were too tall and collapsed in 1272, were rebuilt and collapsed again in 1284. Thus St Pierre looks unfinished, has no nave or spire, but lovely glasswork, clocks and doorways to make up for it.

Map of Beauvais

The Galerie Nationale de la Tapisserie (€4) bears testament to Beauvais' important textile industry, while the Musée Départementale de l'Oise (€2) in the old bishop's palace at 1 rue du Musée has exhibits on local history, archaeology and painting.

Beauvais is only one hour from Paris by train, and Beauvais airport is popular with discount flight operators who fly there from the UK and Europe. There is a connecting bus from Beauvais airport to Porte Maillot in Paris (€10 one way). Beauvais ' tourist office is at 1 rue Beauregard (03 44 15 30 30).

There are no high flying hotels in Beauvais but a number of clean and simple hotels such as the Cygne, 24 rue Carnot (03 44 48 68 40) from €30 to €40, and the Hôtel du Commerce, 11 rue de Chambiges (03 44 15 34 34) is under €30 per night.

For those of you self catering there is a market in place de Halles on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. At lunchtime try La Tourtière, 3 rue Ricard (03 44 45 86 32) which has an excellent selection of savoury and sweet tartes. Le Marignan, 1 rue de Malherbe (03 44 48 15 15) is a two-tiered eatery: the brasserie downstairs has €12 menus, whilst the well-admired restaurant upstairs has menus from €19.

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