Every design for Beauvais

Beauvais grew up on the banks of the Thérain, a tributary of the Oise, at the northern edge of the Paris Basin, where the Picardy plateau begins. The Romans knew it as Caesaromagus; before them it was the stronghold of the Bellovaci, the Belgic tribe that gave the town its later Latin name.

Today it is the prefecture of the Oise and the largest town in the department, a short way north of Paris, with a whole region, the Beauvaisis, named after it. Above the rooftops rises the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais, never finished and without a nave, yet crowned with the tallest Gothic choir in the world. Close by stand the Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Basse Œuvre and the MUDO – Musée de l'Oise, and the Statue de Jeanne Hachette recalls the woman who led the defence of the walls against the Duke of Burgundy. Each June a procession still honours her, with the town's women walking first. The Manufacture Nationale de Tapisserie carries on the town's weaving tradition.

Wherever you have ended up, the river, the plateau and that soaring choir mark the place you come back to.