Saint Germer de Fly

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" wrote Robbie Burns in his poem To a Mouse. To avoid the perils of this truism we usually don't have a plan although we seem to get in trouble just as often as those that do. Such was the case when looking for a campsite in Beauvais after a grueling day in Arras - none were to be found! We were progressively directed further and further out into the boonies, ultimately to Saint Germer de Fly where there was, we were assured, an open site - guaranteed! Well, there was a site but it did not open for another six weeks. Onward and upward we reached an even more remote burg called Le Coudray Saint Germer where we slithered into a mud-hole that, after a month or so of dry weather, might have made an acceptable site. Nonetheless, it felt like a triumph to us.
The following morning we checked out Saint Germer Le Fly, a tiny town of 1,600 souls, on our way through to Rouen. Saint Germer himself built a Benedictine Abbey there in the 7th century and became the first abbot. The Normans destroyed the abbey in the 9th century and again, after it was rebuilt, in the 10th century. In the 12th century it was rebuilt yet again, this time as a Cistercian abbey complete with a grand abbey church. Take the tour for more details.