Les meilleurs hôtels à Cambridge

If you've ever eaten in England, you've probably had a piece of Cambridgeshire on your plate -- the lush area is the main growing space for British staples like wheat and other fruits and veggies. Visitors to the area marvel over the stunning shades of black, brown, yellow and green that grace local farms, but it wasn't always so. Visitors in the 17th century would have seen miles upon miles of untenable Cambridgeshire marsh, but Charles I changed all that in 1630 by granting a charter to a Dutch engineer to drain the land, transforming the area from a swamp to an agricultural paradise of flatlands known as The Fens. The sparkling star of the Fens is Flag Fen, right outside Peterborough and the site of Bronze Age excavations. It has been described as one of the world's most exciting finds, with archaeologists busily uncovering a large 3,000-year-old timber platform surrounded by reconstructed prehistoric buildings and ancient animal breeds. Another Cambridgeshire city is distinguished in quite another fashion, with St. Ives playing host to this classic riddle: As I was going to St. Ives / I met a man with seven wives. / The seven wives had seven sacks / The seven sacks had seven cats / The seven cats had seven kits. / Kits, cats, sacks, wives / How many were going to St. Ives? Can you do that one in your head? If you move south of flat Fens, you'll notice the county scenery changing from endless flat expanses to gently undulating hills, offering stunning views of the great university city of Cambridge, famed for its 31 colleges including world-reknowned Cambridge University. Cambridge offers architectural treasures and the atmosphere of historic colleges, old courts, winding streets as well as the beauty of the River Cam. More geeky visitors will note that Cambridge is the home of the famed Trojan Room Coffee Pot, the Web site with the dubious distinction of being the first "live-cam" on the Internet offering updated views of the Cambridge University coffee pot to Net visitors since 1991 -- the Dark Ages of the Internet.