As you read this we are in Picardy, the region just to the north of France. Our day to day trials and tribulations, as well as our ongoing gelato count, we will be posting on Traveling with Barb and Chris page on Facebook. Here I want to write a bit about Picardy.
First, Picard was NOT named after the Star Trek character Jean Luc Picard from Next Generation. Also, Picard’s vineyard is not in the Picardy region, it’s in La Barre, Burgundy, France, which is just north of the Swiss border close to Dijon. Sometimes I think the people at Star Trek just make all this stuff up and they’re not historical documents at all.
In the “this really is true category”, Dijon is actually the home to Dijon mustard. Dijon mustard was first made in 1856 and is made by replacing vinegar with the acidic juice of unripe grapes. Today’s Dijon mustard uses vinegar, salt, white wine and water to mimic the original grape acid. Most of the seeds used to make Grey Poupon and other Dijon mustards is actually grown in Canada. Climate change caused a smaller crop of seeds in 2022 and created a shortage of Dijon mustard.
And none of that has anything to do with Picardy.
The name Picardy comes from the language spoken during the middle ages in Northern France and Belgium, Picard. The Latin Quarter in Paris (named such because it was the home to many university students), home of Sorbonne University, had a population knowns as “Nation Picard” because of all the students attending who were from the north.
As I mentioned, Picardy is the region to the north of Paris and in 2014 (or 2016 depending on the source) was combined with the Nord-Pas-de-Calais to create the northern most part of France. Because of its location close to the English Channel, the Low Countries (Belgium, and the Netherlands), and Germany it was the location of many battles through the centruies. The Somme river runs through Picardy and was the location of the World War I “Battle of the Somme” which occurred between July 1 and November 18, 1916. Of the three million men who participated in the battle, more than one million were killed or injured.
Picardy (technically the newly joined Nord Pas de Calais) is the location of the Battle of Agincourt, made famous by Shakespeare in his play Henry V with its oft quoted “St. Crispin’s Day” speech.
Rabbit Hole
The story goes that in 1940 Lawrence Olivier gave the St. Crispin’s Day speech over the radio and Churchill was so impressed he asked Olivier to make a film of the play, which he did, which was released in 1944.
End Rabbit Hole
The Battle of Crecy, near Abbeville, in 1337 was a stunning English victory over a superior French force. In 1557 the Habsburgs invaded sacking and destroying several cities and the area was prominent in the during the War of Spanish Succession.
Is southern Picardy, towns such as Chantilly (with a well known chateau and a horse museum – more on that on the Facebook page), Beauvais and Compiègne are almost bedroom communities for Paris with many people commuting in to the capital.
Rabbit Hole
I don’t know about you but every time I see the name Chantilly, in my head the song Chantilly Lace starts up. Then I think about how the singer, The Big Bopper, was killed in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly. And that leads me to singing American Pie, which reminds me of the movie American Pie and how Eugen Levy was in that movie and one of my best buds Mary Ellen (Mel) worked in the same building as Levy and everyone who has met him (including me and Mel) talk about what a great guy he is and now I’m thinking about Shitt’s Creek and why don’t people want to make more funny, pleasant shows, rather than the derivative “gritty”, “dark” gun battle of the week shows that seems to populate streaming and network TV, and now I’m sad. But I realize that Chantilly, France has a horse museum, so now I’m happy again. (I should probably talk to my doctor about my meds.)
End Rabbit Hole
Napoleon I introduced sugar beets to Picardy in the early 19th century and it now produces more than a third of all sugar beets in France. Napoleon brought sugar beets to Picardy after the English had seized the French Caribbean Islands and cut off French access to cane sugar.
Picardy does NOT host EuroDisney (now known as Disneyland Paris, so I’ve been told) but it does have Parc Asterix, the second most visited park in France. Based on the comic book series “Asterix” and not on the grammatical symbol *, it boasts rides and themes from historical cultures such as the Gauls, The Romans, The Ancient Greeks and Ancient Egypt. It has lots of roller coasters and when I was younger I would have wanted to go on all of them. Now, I just look in envy as my inner ear reminds me that I’m now that guy who gets off a roller coaster dizzy and nauseous. Getting old can really suck.
Next week Upper and Lower Normandy. There will be museums, so many museums.