A CITY TO DISCOVER

Nicole (our London visit in August) has been living in Amiens for three years. The moment had come to go and visit her.

The Perret tower in front of the station

A modern but empty station

.

Notre Dame Cathedral

 If you say Amiens to anyone in France, the first reaction will be, the cathedral.....








Perhaps if you said it to an Australian of my generation or a bit younger, many would be able to tell you stories of the war, and how much Amiens and Villers-Bretonneux had been involved in the first world war. With the celebrations going on at the moment (although I still find it difficult to understand why we celebrate the beginning of the war in 1914), there are many signs around that Australians have been visiting…..

An Australian looking pub

Amiens is of course Notre-Dame Cathedral but we were not to visit that until my second day. Nicole wanted to show me the city before the « plat de résistance ». I am so glad she did. Somehow it is a secret city. A silent one. The buildings, especially the administrative are set back in gardens, majestic in all their glory.

What surprised me most though were the different facades. Some windows seemed to be leaning one against another. Doors of different shapes, different colors. The red brick which may be something rather common to Amiens looks polished and clean and not smutty as I have seen it in other cities in France.

Renaissance facade

The Belfry that sang a song every hour 

Practically Tudor in all its splendour

See how the windows lean?

Nicole's own  street?

Look at those windows leaning...

The cathedral from way off

The Perret tower

Sunday morning..

There is Saint-Leu - the little Venice of the North. More than a picturesque quarter, it is welcoming and encourages leisurely strolls along the waterfront. I didn't see any craft shops but that didn’t matter as the cafés and restaurants were busy with tourists and young people who were undoubtedly students from the university. Even women rowers to compete with the men.

Look at that clear water

and the students dress him

what lovely walks along the canal

waiting to go in

and closer too

Boys and girl rowers

The boat is picked up

over their heads

another view

Even if I had read all of Jules Verne’s books as a child, I didn’t understand then that he was French and of course, did not know that he came originally from Nantes but fell in love with a woman from Amien - and you can guess the rest of the story!  The house is somewhat insignificant but there we were, seven of us, trying to work out when the museum opened. No sign at all until Nicole inquired and the postwoman informed us it was 11am.

Not a sign about opening time

From further off

So sad for tourists that there is no indication of where the museum is - nor for that matter that it was he who created the circus which he inaugurated in 1889. That will be for a future visit.

The Circus

and what is on?

And what is this tower?

No indication...

the circus as we went on our way

An enchanting moment is slipping along in a silent electric boat on the Hortillonages. Also known as the Floating gardens. Would you believe that this covers over 300 hectars of small islands which are crisscrossed by 65 km of canals? The original marshes were exploited for their peat but later became market gardens. It was a wonderful moment with Alain our « batelier »  floating along discovering the little weekend huts and colorful gardens was bliss. Such a silence even the transparent water seemed to be listening ……

Alan our boatman

Going to market

Along the canal

A prize winning garden

and more of it

Such transparent water

and little gardening huts along the way

Rebuilding the endges of th canal

And protecting the plants with bottle scarecrows

A willow dances in the wind

and roots look at themselves in the water

gardens and flowers

and flowers and more

private boats waiting to leave

is it really water?

A scarecrow to watch over the crops

and swans come to see ....

what's going on

ducks galore

another little house

and more swans

with willow tree of another species

The Gothic cathedral, listed by UNESCO as world heritage, has been described as light, perfection….I was expecting something big but the inside is enormous and could house two of our Notre Dame in Paris. It’s France’s largest edifice (145m long and 70 wide) and has the highest nave in Europe. It’s breathtaking with the stained glass windows rising above you as if pointing towards the sky

An Australian Flag

….Nicole told me a very touching story concerning the paving with  Hitler’s cross design - even of course it was not. At the foot of each reclining bronze statue there is and was a hindou cross which tells where the sun is positionned during the day. Some clergy who were close to the bishop informed the German authorities that they would create a double profanity if the cathedral was bombed. If  the reclining bronze statues  were removed Hitler's own cross would be badly damaged which of course would make Hitler furious and give a very bad image to the country. So the German soldiers were terrified about bombing the cathedral and some weeks later Hitler gave the order not to do so....

Strange as it may seem, in the night of the 20 to the 21st of May 1940, Amiens was destroyed. A blood bath. The germans bombed the city but the mystery remains. None touched the cathedral. At the end of the war the aviators told the tale "We bombed the cathedral and for some reason which we did not understand, the bombs veered off their initial trajectory as if a mysterious hand had steered them to do so".....

The tiles in question

Bronze X111 - Evrard de Fouilloy - Bishop 1211-1222

and he laid the first stone of the cathedral in 1220

Of course I think we all know the crying cherub or have seen photos, postcards and even received one. I never knew that the cherub was in the Amiens Cathedral.

There were so much to discover ,

maquette of th labyrinthe

Thr Organ

The door

The Nave

and it's lock

Wall sculpture

Looking up at the organ

majestic

mural sculptures,

The nave again

Beheaded.....

The detail is amazing

and beautiful

and faces which seem real

Ajouter une légende

and a Christ with his feet together rather than crossed

an alter which looked like the face of the sun….

paintings on the walls…..

well not quite

I’m sure one could spend a long time just looking. I have been in many cathedrals in my life but somehow this was an experience that I have never had before.

In fact, Amiens is an experience. It’s a town not to be missed. There is so much to discover just walking around it, through the pedestrian streets, even taking a discovery ride around the town.

The man leads the carriage

and the guide tells the story

as they go along

I would recommend the city to anyone - but I was lucky. I had an excellent guide.