www.tourisme-paysdelaon.com. Laon’s historic Ville Haute seems a complete mystery when you are in the modern Ville Basse – especially if it is shrouded in a veil of mist. You can get to the Ville Haute from the Poma 2000 station in the Ville Basse: the Poma, a tiny electric train, scales the cliff to the heart of the Old Town, where footsteps echo in the narrow streets of 17th-18thC houses.

The views from the ramparts which still enclose old Laon are best appreciated on a clear day, but the major sight in town, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame, is just as spectacular wreathed in fog. It sports seven towers, two of which heave the monumental façade skyward above the heavily carved triple portal and arcades, later copied at Reims and Chartres. A rhino and a hippo guard the main door, also human figures and gargoyles; even lofty silhouettes of horned cattle said to resemble the beasts that hauled the stone up from the plain. The interior of this Gothic marvel is no disappointment either, its white stone lit by a stunning rose window and narrow lancets in vivid blues and reds.

Behind the cathedral, the 17thC episcopal palace is arranged around a spacious courtyard, and there is access to the northern rampart walk. Stroll south, and the Musée d’Art et d’Archeologie-Laon, www.tourisme-paysdelaon.com, displays an extensive collection of Greek vases, Galio-Roman and Merovingian finds, plus an octagonal 12thC Chapelle des Templiers in the garden. Three 13tnC gateways breach the southern ramparts; near the westerly Porte de Soissons, the early-Gothic Eglise de Saint-Martin provides the focus of the Le Bourg quarter.