Lunch and shopping in St Omer and Le Shuttle home

After a fairly leisurely start and a hotel breakfast we set off late morning for the journey home.  We stopped at a large Le Clerc in Lumbres just outside St Omer where we had a decent lunch and then did some shopping for French food and drinks.  We got back to the Le Shuttle port at Coquelles in plent of time but UK Border control was slow as ever so we ended up on the booked train rather than managing to get an early one.  The trip home from Folkestone was remarkably clear for 5.30pm on a Friday evening.  A good holiday and a good start to 2019.

Armistice signing site and Pierrefonds

We drove just a few km out of Compiègne today to visit the site of the Armistice that ended the first World War.  It was an interesting site of two railway lines that was heavily wooded at the time but has now been cleared to show exactly what happened and how.

We drove on then to Pierrefonds where we visited another interesting castle.  We had an excellent dinner back in Compiègne at a local restaurant and ate proper French food for a change!

Exploring Compiègne more thoroughly

We spent today exploring Compiègne more thoroughly and didn't use the car at all.  We visited the Chateau de Compiègne and enjoyed exploring its rooms and grounds as well as a little motor museum there.  We had lunch at a nice tea room at the Castle too. 

We visited the Christmas Market at Compiègne in the afternoon and after a couple of beers in the local bar had dinner in an American diner also just behind the hotel.

A visit to Beauvais

After breakfast in the hotel we we drove over to Beauvais today.  Unfortunately the Cathedral that we had wanted to see was not open but we had a good walk around the town and saw the Christmas market in the town square.  Lunch was quite grazy as we'd had quite a large breakfast.

We stopped off briefly in Agnetz and Clermont on the way back to Compiègne.

We had a few drinks at the hotel then ended up having dinner at a local kebab shop near the rail station as virtually nothing else was open.