Arras

I have very belatedly sorted out my photos from our day trip to Arras, having abandoned them in frustration when I discovered on our return that I had spent most of the day shooting (on my compact camera) with a big blob of something on the lens which left a very noticeable fuzzy area on all my photos. I've now picked out a few of the least noticeably marred ones, as it was a lovely day and deserves to be recorded. I converted Tesco vouchers into a Eurotunnel ticket, valid for a day trip or overnight stay, at the end of 2019, as we were planning a one night trip to Paris mainly to visit the Degas exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, which J was very keen to see. Unfortunately we failed to book it before news of a worrying new virus started to surface; we have managed to defer, rebook and amend the ticket repeatedly, waiting for the moment when a trip would feel possible for us, and finally had to use it or lose it. Arras was an easy choice: it's the only place in France within reach of the channel which has a Changing Place toilet, providing J with the now indispensable hoist to transfer in and out of her wheelchair. For her first three decades we managed to travel anywhere with reasonable wheelchair access; although we had started to search for Changing Places wherever possible, before 2020 I could still, at a pinch, just about manage to lift and support J, and frequently did. Over the past two years new and worsening problems have made this impossible, so our outings and future holidays are now limited to places equipped with a hoist. Fortunately, the number of Changing Places in the UK has increased steadily over the past decade, thanks to a lot of very dedicated campaigning and some government support, though many more are still needed; however, to my knowledge France so far has only three: two opened in 2021, in Arras and Nancy, the latter being too far from Calais for us to reach without a toilet stop, and a very recently opened one at Disneyland. Arras is an easy drive from our home close to the Folkestone Eurotunnel terminal, and staff at the Arras tourist office responded helpfully to my emails checking in advance and again the day before our visit that the facilities we needed really would be open and working. After an early start, we were there by late morning.

Arras was a medieval and renaissance wool trading centre, and has two huge and beautiful squares of baroque houses, significantly reconstructed after the first world war, as well as an ornate old town hall and belfry which are part of a UNESCO  world heritage site of French and Flemish belfries, a cathedral and some interesting art deco buildings in one of the main shopping streets. The weather could not have been more perfect, we picnicked in a very pleasant park near the Citadel from which we could walk into the city centre, and it felt just lovely to be in France again, seeing different streets and buildings, observing countless interesting architectural details, and finding a nice pâtisserie where J could choose the obligatory cake. She opted for a religieuse, two balls of choux filled with chocolate cream, iced with chocolate and decorated with piped fresh cream, while I enjoyed a feuilleté, layers of flaky pasty oozing with crème patissière and topped with chocolate feather icing. 

The day has left all three of us longing for our next cross-Channel trip, so I'm busily searching specialist websites and Facebook groups for self-catering accommodation with hoist and electric profiling bed, within easy reach of Calais (because there are no toilet stops J can use during a journey). We are still avoiding crowds and indoor spaces, but we can find somewhere quiet and attractive with interesting places to walk around. It's not easy, and in the end we may have to blow our savings on a "portable" hoist and a much bigger car in which to transport it, but having moved to Kent partly to be within easy reach of the rest of Europe, we have to find a way to travel again; the day in Arras has reminded us how much this means to us.

This is a back-blip from a couple of weeks ago; I posted my Abstract Thursday photos just a little earlier, if you have time to find them, and photos from today - Friday 28th - will follow tomorrow.