Amiens

Sadly we said goodbye to Belgium and jumped back in the car bound for Amiens in Northern France. The French pronounciation is Ami-ohn because they don't like using the last letter in words!  We actually didn't have much time to explore Amiens because we spent the few days we were there navigating the Western Front battlefields but here is some of what we found.

This is Notre Dame Cathedral in Amiens. We were told by the lady in the tourist office that the cathedral is so big that it can hold two of Paris' Notre Dame cathedral.  Later on another tour guide told us that the French are prone to exaggeration! Either way - the cathedral is enormous.

As you can see from the photos, the outside of the cathedral is covered with carvings.  One carving near the entrance actually shows the cathedral falling down which apparently happened in the 13th Century.

Amiens (and the area surrounding the Somme River) was a hot spot during the First World War.  Miraculously the cathedral survived the war without a scratch. There is a story that the Bishop of Amiens pleaded with his German counterpart to keep artillery fire away from the cathedral. There are several interesting plaques inside the cathedral commemorating the role of Australia in the defense of Amiens.

It was late in the day when we went inside the cathedral so the stained glass windows were not really at their best.

However, there was a beautiful statue in the cathedral called the Weeping Angel. Apparently, this image was used a lot on postcards during the First World War.

This building was in the courtyard next to the cathedral. Apparently at Christmas time they have a laser light show on the cathedral and surrounding buildings.

We stayed in a lovely little hotel called the Victor Hugo which was just down the street from the cathedral. On our first night in Amiens we met an Australian couple from Gloucester in NSW and discovered that they were staying in the same hotel as us. We ended up having a couple of dinners (and quite a few drinks) with them. It was really nice chatting with people who understood exactly what you were talking about!

POSTSCRIPT

I found this photo of the cathedral lit up for Christmas. Apparently this is how the cathedral would have looked originally with all the statues and carvings painted.