May 26, 2016:
Today we rode to our Warm Showers accommodations in Beauvais. Finally, the riding was relatively uneventful. And we even had some pretty good weather: overcast, but no rain. Hurray!
Arriving in the heart of Beauvais, we experienced our first accident. Mark, negotiating a tight curve on a narrow sidewalk, lost his balance and fell over. Luckily, he was barely moving and only suffered some bruises and a tiny bit of road rash. Considering how heavy our bicycles are (90+ pounds), he could have been seriously hurt. Instead, he was just shaken up, and luckily, we were just a few kilometers from Patrick and Marie’s house.
Before going to their house, we stopped at the cathedral in the center of town. We each took turns guarding the bikes while the other ran in to check out Beauvais’ main attraction, the Cathedral of Saint Peter of Beauvais and happened to catch a children’s choir practicing inside.
Shortly after, we were warmly welcomed into Patrick and Marie’s house.
They live near the city center in a gorgeous house with exposed oak beams, and warm, solid wood trim and built-in cabinetry and paneling. Marie has very tasteful needlepoint that she created hanging throughout the house. The decor could easily slip into kitsch country kitchen, but under her tasteful eye, remains elegant. Too bad our photos of their beautiful interior didn’t turn out, but here are some of the exterior:
Marie and Patrick are, collectively, a French version of Martha Stewart. As soon as we wheeled our bicycles into the garage, they immediately took our drink order, showed us to the shower, and offered to do a load of laundry for us.
Patrick and Marie pulled out all the stops for us. As soon as we were clean, they offered us our drinks and panettone, and we enjoyed a very pleasurable afternoon of conversation with the help of Google Translate. Both Marie and Patrick are retired. Marie was a nurse, and Patrick had the world’s best job: ice cream taster at the local Nestle plant! Despite taste testing ice cream for decades, he’s very trim and does not suffer from diabetes. I think he won the genetic lottery, don’t you?
They have two beautiful backyard chickens, one of which still produces eggs. Patrick makes his own Comte cheese, and Marie makes homemade organic yogurt every day. One of their main hobbies is organic gardening in a community garden a few kilometers away. We enjoyed the delicious fruits of their labor throughout our visit.
For 24 hours, Patrick and Marie dropped everything in their lives so they could wait on us hand and foot. And they’re not even cyclists! Well, they enjoy toodling about on their bikes, but they’re not cycle tourists. And yet, they seemed to anticipate our every need. We are so honored to have been hosted by them. We hope one day to be able to return the favor.
