What a day this was.  It started and finished swimmingly, but the middle bit was probably the most challenging few hours of the trip. We started with a gorgeous continental breakfast on the terrace of the chateau, overlooking the old ruined castle. It was a beautiful looking day, hot again, and we were looking forward to visiting one of the most spectacular castles of the trip. We paid up and set off, startling an ear-muffed leaf blowing gardener on the drive on the way out, and made our way through the picturesque and bucolic Picardy countryside. We passed through a couple of quiet villages as we went along, thinking how well everything was going.  The car was a pleasure to drive and was very comfortable and of course looked brilliant! It was as we were coming out of a small village that disaster struck.  We had passed what appeared to be some kind of sewage collection truck, we figured, though we had never seen anything like it so we had a good look at it. I glanced at it in the rear view mirror as we passed, to get maybe a bit more of an idea of what it was, and when I looked back, as we were coming over a small rise, I just glimpsed an orange-sized rock on the road, but too late to swerve out of the way of it. We bumped over it with a bit of a nasty jolt. It was a real driving lapse on my part. We were very worried about what damage it might have done to the tyres, and worst of all, it was both the front and back tyres on the right side that had hit it.  To blow one tyre might be regarded as a misfortune.  To blow both looks like carelessness.  We continued along with our hearts in our mouths, and just for a moment I began to feel a bit hopeful, but then I saw the warning light on the dashboard: ‘Pressure alert, check tyres’.  That was it; we were screwed. Soon the steering was affected, just as we were coming into a little hamlet, so I stopped in a carpark and we surveyed the damage. The back tyre was flat as a pancake.  The front tyre had an angry-looking bulge poking out, a big lump.  It wasn’t safe. And we were more than a hundred Ks from our next major town, Amiens, which we were due to get to that afternoon.  We didn’t know what to do. There was just a very strong sinking feeling.  We were in the middle of no-where with one flat and one soon-to-be flat. Chateau de Pierrefonds wasn’t far away, but it only had a village.  We’d change the flat and go on there, and something might come up.  The Merc had a pretty handy tyre-changing kit at least, so I got that done, and we gingerly drove on to Pierrefonds, as if we had a six-tier wedding cake perched on the back seat. When we got there we parked and had a bit of a look around.  There was a little one-bowser servo, Garage du Lac, but we couldn’t see any mechanic shop. We had a cherry coke from the little shop nearby and collected our thoughts.  Could we make it to Amiens on what we had? Possible, but not safe. We wandered towards the Chateau, thinking we could just go really slow on the freeway.  

Then we thought, hell, why not at least ask at the little service station? There could be a chance they may have something, so we went back down and, through a lot of pointing and charades, we managed to convey our problem.  And then we saw that down a drive to the side there was mechanic shop. The owner pulled out his phone and started ringing around for tyres.  He said he thought he might be able to get one and then he noticed the second tyre with its bulge.  He said he’d be lucky to get just one and we thought we could drive the spare to Amiens and stay there all day next day if necessary.  He got back on his phone after suggesting we come back later, and so we went up to Chateau de Pierrefonds to have a look at it. It’s a restored castle that was once owned by the Duke of Orleans.  Built in the 1390s, it’s one of the most advanced examples of medieval architecture anywhere.  While Raglan Castle in Wales was impressive as a late medieval castle, this place leaves it in the shade.  Like Reims Cathedral, it’s awesome.  When you see things like that, you understand a bit more why the French think they’re so great. The scale of the place is like nothing in Britain.  The castle was slighted in 1617 by Richelieu’s troops, but was restored to its former glory in the 19th century.  You’d be forgiven for thinking they’d embellished its scale and grandeur, but apparently not. It’s truly amazing.  We walked all through it. The chapel was beautiful.  Unfortunately most of the furniture had been removed from the state rooms and so on, but you could get a sense of what it must have been like.  Coming out you could see just how impregnable the castle was, prior to big cannon. The main gate was incredibly elaborate and complex. What a place. We had another wander around the outside and then made our way back towards the little gas station to see if he’d found a tyre.  We waited for a while while he was finishing up, and eventually he drove the car out of the shop towards us. And to our amazement, he had put not one, but BOTH replacement tyres on the car!   We were so relieved.  We thought it would be hard enough to get ONE tyre of the kind needed by the Merc, being in such a seemingly isolated place.  We wished we could thank them more than just paying, and with the credit card you couldn’t add tips and we were low on cash, so Jen thought it would be nice to give their boy, whom we’d seen hanging about, the little pewter knight we’d bought at Beeston Castle.  It was a good idea, and they were appreciative and the kid seemed to like it too.  

So after hugs and kisses all round (luckily I was in the car by that point :)) we left Garage du Lac and Pierrefonds right as rain again, unexpectedly (except for being short a few hundred, dammit) and very relieved.  We went straight to Villers Bretonneux, where they have the Australian World War I Memorial. It was pretty amazing. Hundreds of grave stones, with a wide open part in between, running up to a large building with a tower. Very well maintained, sombre and tastefully designed. We were the only ones there, until a couple of women came picking some wild flowers. We climbed the tower and took some photos and looked at a lot of the stones. Some were for soldiers who died on the last day of the war, 11/11/18, which was so tragic. We stayed for a while, then drove off for Amiens. Our Hotel, the Mercure, was economically stylish. The room was fine. We showered up, and we’d worked up quite an appetite and were more than ready to have a glass of wine after our day. We got an outside table at a pizza place across the street, Restaurant Gargouille. It was such a great pizza, and after our adventures, and the relief that they’d come out okay, I think we enjoyed that pizza and bottle of red just as much as the best fine dinners of the trip. After dinner we wandered up to look at the Cathedral in the dusk. It too was an awesome thing. So big. They say you can fit two Notre Dammes of Paris in Amiens Cathedral.  We’d go inside in the morning, but we stayed around the front because there were a lot of people sitting on steps at the back of the square in front of the cathedral, as if waiting for something. There was an old-fashioned organ grinder, and Jen gave him a Euro. It turned out that what they were waiting for was a laser show on the cathedral facade. It was the most amazing thing. Every figure on the facade, and there were hundreds of them, was coloured with lasers.  All the skin, clothes, hair, animals, everything was in brilliant colour. There was music that went with it and a narration.  We went up closer to look at the detail. Originally the facade would have been painted along the same lines, the way they did in the middle ages. Absolutely stunning it was.  We sat soaking it up for a good while.  Eventually we wandered back down to the hotel and turned in.  It was the second day in a row when we had a bit more excitement than we really needed, and I remember thinking that I would try to ensure they wouldn’t come in threes.

Chateau de Pierrefonds   Villers Bretonneux