The first stop inland for many visitors to France is
ST-OMER
, a quiet, unassuming and attractive little town. Away from the ports,
the landscape becomes more rural and the roads straighter and quieter,
while the town itself has flights of Flemish magnificence, especially
in the Hôtel de Ville and some of the recently restored mansions on rue Gambetta. The Gothic
Basilique Notre-Dame contains some noteworthy statuary, and there are some handsome exhibits in the eighteenth-century
Hôtel Sandelin
museum on rue Carnot (closed for renovation at the time of writing -
check with tourist office for details) - in particular, a glorious
piece of medieval goldsmithing known as the Pied de Croix de St-Bertin .
Aside from visiting the pleasant public gardens to the west of town, there's the possibility of exploring the nearby
marais , a network of Flemish waterways cut between plots of land on reclaimed marshes east of town along the river. You can join a
bâteau-promenade leaving from the quai du Haut-Pont, north from the gare SNCF along the Canal de l'Aa (June Sat & Sun 3pm & 4pm; July & Aug daily 3pm & 4pm; €6.40; tickets from the
Café du Haut-Pont on the quai
), where you can also rent rowing boats, or from the church in the
nearby town of Clairmarais (July & Aug daily 11am & hourly
2-5pm; €5.79). Round trips on the bâteaux-promenades take
roughly two hours, and include a commentary on the flora and fauna of
the marshes; the longer trip also features a ride down the unique
vertical boat-lift at Arques. For further information, including times,
visit the tourist office.
To get to the centre of town from the exuberant 1903 gare SNCF , cross over the canal and walk ten minutes down rue F.-Ringot, past the post office and into rue Carnot. The
tourist office is by the gare routière
on place P.-Painlevé (Easter-Sept Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-1pm;
Sept-Easter Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 2-6pm; tel 03.21.98.08.51, fax
03.21.98.22.82). For accommodation , try the pretty old Hôtel St-Louis at 25 rue d'Arras (tel 03.21.38.35.21, fax 03.21.38.57.26; €24-34; restaurant from €11.43); the
Bretagne , 2 place du Vainquai, near the train station (tel 03.21.38.25.78, fax 03.21.93.51.22; €46-61; restaurant from €13.72), or the
Vivier, 22 rue Louis-Martel, on a small pedestrian street near the town hall
(tel 03.21.95.76.00, fax 03.21.95.42.20; €34-46; closed beginning of
Jan), whose restaurant specializes in fish (menus from €13.57). The
closest campsite is near the Forêt de Clairmarais, 4.5km east
of St-Omer (tel 03.21.38.34.80; April-Oct), although there's no
transport out there. For places to eat other than the hotels, try the Auberge du Bachelin , 12 bd de
Strasbourg, on the north side of the town centre (menus from €12.04), or establishments around place Maréchal-Foch.
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