Carole
Les lettres de voyages de Mozart
Carole Delcambre, the owner answers our questions
Who are you ?
I am Carole, and I offer you 3 guest rooms, 2 studios and a gîte in the Ferme de Bonavis, located 80 km south of Lille, 10 km from Cambrai in the Nord department (Hauts de France region).
When you come, I will be there to welcome you, prepare a delicious breakfast with local and gourmet influences, tell you everything about my region, find you good tips, ideas for visits and hikes.
What is your favorite place in the surrounding area?
It is the Abbaye de Vaucelles nestled in the valley where the Escaut river flows, 2 km from the Farm. Also go and have a look at the watchtower. This small tower in the middle of the countryside will move you.
Cambrai with its shops,its cathedral, its belfry, its museum, and its café terraces is a city where life is good.
Why do we like Bonavis Farm?
Why? Because here, it's not like elsewhere...
Because you feel at home there, but you are transported by the beautiful volumes of the rooms, the molded ceilings, the waxed parquet floors, the style of the house.
There is also a large courtyard, a green park with an orchard, private parking and fiber wifi.
It was also here that Mozart stayed in 1763 during his journey through the great European courts at the time when Bonavis Farm was a Post House.
Bonavis is the crossroads of Europe. The Bonavis farm is 3 km from the A26, 10 km from Cambrai, in the heart of the Escaut Valley and not far from its sources, a stone's throw from the Cistercian Abbey of Vaucelles, and on the Paths and Memories of the 14-18 War route.
Visit Flesquières, its Déborah tank and its exhibition as well as the Historial de Péronne. Visit Matisse. Go down into the mine at Lewarde. Stroll through the Cambrai Museum and the Louvre-Lens. Hike in the countryside on the marked trails. Enjoy the small restaurants just a stone's throw from us. Relax in one of our pleasant rooms and enjoy a delicious breakfast with homemade jams and yogurts. Peace, beauty of the site, welcome guaranteed.
And find Ferme de Bonavis on Facebook and Instagram.
The Cambrésis is unexpected, we don't say it enough. However, a weekend will be enough for it to confirm its status as a favorite. The Cambrésis will be everything you didn't expect. And yet exactly what you needed.
Travel letters from Leopold Mozart to his friend Lorenz Hagenauer
"We left Mons early in the morning, and it was still light when we arrived in Bonavis", is the sentence written by Leopold Mozart, the father of the great musician, on December 8, 1763 to his friend, Lorenz Hagenauer in one of his 140 pages of travel letters.
The latter had decided to introduce his talented son to the great European courts. So he bought a carriage and off they went. Mozart arrived at the end of the afternoon at the royal post office in Bonavis after 80 kilometres of driving.
It was indeed on April 18, 1738 that a decree of the Council of State ordered the construction of a road from Péronne to Cambrai passing near the Bonavis farm and it was around 1747 that the minister and secretary of state, grand master and superintendent of mail, post and relay of France, demanded the construction of a royal post relay at the corner of the roads of Péronne and Saint-Quentin, on the lands of the Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles.
The postmaster of Bonavis, on the road to Paris, keeps an inn and cultivates 400 mencaudées or acres of land. There are 21 post horses and 22 for ploughing.
At that time, on the royal roads, there were posts to change horses. They employed drivers called postilions to transport travelers from one post to another.
After a night in Bonavis, the young Mozart took the road to fame towards Paris, where he found himself the following evening at the post office in Gournay, but that is another story.
Wolfgang's travels...
Mozart spent about 250 days of his short life traveling, either in hired cars or in post-chaise. The journeys were long, the roads were bad, the inns were cold, damp, and dirty; and Mozart was expected to perform on the piano, harpsichord, organ, and violin. Then the child prodigy would return with trunks full of trinkets that his admirers gave him as a token of gratitude...
1763 - 1766
Europe
Leaving Salzburg in a private carriage on 9 June 1763, the Mozarts set off accompanied by a servant. They travelled via Wasserburg (10 June, organ concert) to Munich (12 June) for various concerts. The next stop was Augsburg (22 June, concerts) where Leopold bought a small travelling clavichord. Then came Ulm (6 July, organ), Ludwigsburg (9 July), Bruchsal (12 July), Schwetsingen (14 July, concert), Heidelberg (after 19 July, organ), Mannheim (3 days) and Worms. The route was uncertain until Mainz (3 August, concert), Frankfurt (10 August, concerts) and then back to Mainz (31 August). Koblenz by private boat (September 17, concerts), post-chaise via Brühl to Cologne (September 28), Aachen (September 30), Liege (October 2), Tienen (October 3), Louvain, Brussels (October 5), via Mons (November 15) Bonavis (October 16) and Gournay (October 17) to Paris (October 18). Versailles from December 24 to January 8, 1764 (organ and concerts)
After having welcomed many other illustrious figures such as King Charles X and Louis PhilippeFirst, the post office ceased to function in 1867, and was burned down by the Uhlans in September 1914, before being rebuilt in the same style in 1923.
