Beauvais, a historical town

This extraordinary 13th Century building consists mainly of the highest gothic Choir in the world, the only completed part of what might have become the biggest cathedral in the world.

Saint-Etienne's Church which was the Church of the town is much smaller than the Cathedral, the bishop's Church. The inside of the Church reveals stand glass windsurf (16th C). Among these, Jesse Tree, painted by Engrand Le Prince can be admired.

Beauvais has been linked to tapestry work for more than 3 centuries. Visit the workshops, where weavers practised their special technique, which was the glory of the town in the 17th and 18th centuries.

On a site occupied since the Roman era (gallo-roman pottery found around the château), there was a castle in the tenth century built on stilts. In the Middle Ages, the castle had a closed courtyard, corner towers and a drawbridge. The current château, built after the 100 years war, underwent drastic renovation in the sixteenth century. The transoms and mullions were removed in the seventeenth century. The inner decoration was redone in the eighteenth century. The château is surrounded by a moat and formal French gardens. The lords of Troissereux were part of all the major events in the history of France: the crusades, the 100 years war, the wars against Burgundy, the religious wars, the Revolution and the Empire

Listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France, Gerberoy was granted it's town charter in 1202 by Philippe Auguste. Situated between Normandie and Picardie, on a hill of 188 meters high, the town has been besieged many times between 1079 and 1437. Each time the town was rebuilt and has maintained all its original authenticity. The 17th and 18th Century houses built in brick, flint, daub and wattle serve to offset the beautiful collegiate church, and the ruins of the original fortress, the latter transformed into an Italian style garden by the painter Le Sidaner. The 18th century brick town hall, with its covered market, houses on the first floor a small museum containing local archives, examples of local "Beauvaisian pottery", paintings and some artefacts of the painter Henri le Sidaner (1862- 1939).

The museum is stup in a former brushmaking factory (1890-1979). All the factory's equipment is preserved, much of which dates back to the turn of the century. The brushmaking factory was established in a former mill. The mill's paddle wheel provides enough energy to run the factory's machines by way of a driving system composed of belts and pulleys. You will see : the manufacture of wooden brushes and the raw materials used in the brushmaking-craft. And also : the wheel and brushmaking machinery in operation.

You will visit the regional museum of the Oise which is housed in the former Bishop's palace, with its rare collection of furniture, its collections of ceramics, and paintings from the French and Italian schools of the 17th and 18th century.