Amiens

The weather has become gradually more cloudy and cool now that autumn is here and rain was forecast for the day after we arrived in Forges-Les-eaux. We decided to travel 2km up the road and catch a train to Amiens, rather than having a wet day in the saddle. A six hour day turned into an hour by train and so we had plenty of time to look around the city. It is a university town and lots of students were milling around the bars and cafes. This also meant the prices were low in some of the places and the glasses of beer were larger! The main attractions are the cathedral and the hortillonages, which are a series of 'floating gardens' that extend over 10 km from the city centre. They also have a museum and gallery that is one of the best in France, particularly for sculptures and prehistoric artifacts. At this time of the year they also light up the cathedral front after dark, so that you can see how it looked when all the decorations, statues and reliefs were painted. This turned out to be a remarkable show. They have about six projectors that shine on the cathedral and they light up different sections with a commentary. These two images show a small section in daylight and when illuminated:








The whole cathedral front







The museum was not quite what we expected as the first floor was closed for an exhibition, but the sculptures were outstanding.







You can visit the water gardens by boat, so we took a trip the next day. They used to be managed like allotments and the vegetables and fruit sold in front of the cathedral. Over time they suffered from imported goods and the move to a common market in Europe. Now, most of the gardens are used as holiday places with small sheds and shacks built on them. We were going to follow the canal the next day so would be traveling through this area again.

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Location:Au Bois le Comté,Albert,France