Things to do in Amiens
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Catédral Notre Dame
Amiens is deservedly famous for its magnificent Gothic cathedral, the largest in France and a Unesco World Heritage site. Begun in 1220 rather macabrely to house the head of St John the Baptist - enclosed in gold in the northern outer wall of the ambulatory - the soaring Gothic arches and immense vaulted interior are a masterpiece of religious architecture.
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Jules Verne House
The father of science fiction writing spent 18 years living in Amiens - including 15 years as town councillor - and his whimsical, turreted home is now a museum. The 19th-century furnished rooms have been left just as they were when Phileas Fogg and Captain Nemo were first captivating the literary world.
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Hortillonages (Floating Gardens)
These market gardens which span a 330-hectare area, have supplied the city with vegetables and flowers since the middle ages. Take a one-hour cruise in a 12-person gondola-like boat from the riverside kiosk and feast your eyes on the flowers and lush vegetable gardens that float throughout the waterway.
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Tour Perret
Long the tallest building in Western Europe, the reinforced concrete Perret Tower (110m), facing the train station, was designed by the Belgian architect Auguste Perret (who also planned postwar Le Havre) and completed in 1954. Not open to visitors.
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Musée de Picardie
Housed in a dashing Second Empire structure (1855–67), the Picardy Museum is surprisingly well endowed with archaeological exhibits, medieval art and Revolution -era ceramics.
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Marott' Street
Designed by Gustave Eiffel's architectural firm in 1892, this exquisite ex-insurance office now attracts chic, well-off, thirty-somethings who sip Champagne (€11) while suspended – on clear-glass tiles – over the wine cellar.
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Marché sur l'eau
Fruit and vegetables grown in the Hortillonnages are sold at this one-time floating market, now held on dry land (except once a year).
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Maison de Jules Verne
Jules Verne (1828–1905) wrote many of his best-known works of brain-tingling – and eerily prescient – science fiction while living in his turreted Amiens home. The models, prints, posters and other items inspired by Verne's fecund imagination afford a fascinating opportunity to check out the future as he envisioned it over a century ago, when going around the world in 80 days sounded utterly fantastic – and before WWI dashed Europeans' belief in a world destined to improve thanks to 'progress'. Signs are in French and English.
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Le Tigzirt
The welcome is as warm as the Algerian Berber-style couscous and tajines (stews), which are steamed, boiled, grilled and baked to perfection.
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Le T'chiot Zinc
Inviting, bistro-style decor reminiscent of the belle époque provides a fine backdrop for the tasty French and Picard cuisine, including fish dishes and caqhuse (pork in a cream, wine vinegar and onion sauce). The proper, Picard pronunciation of the name is 'shtyoh-zang'.
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Le Bouchon
The decor is a bit sparse but the traditional French cuisine is good value. The mouth-watering dessert list encompasses the French classics, including Forêt Noire (Black Forest chocolate cake; €9).
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Hortillonnages
Amien's market gardens – some 3 sq km in extent – have supplied the city with vegetables and flowers since the Middle Ages. Today, their peaceful rieux (waterways), home to 10 working farms and countless water birds, can be visited on 12-person boats whose raised prows make them look a bit like gondolas. Available later (to 6.30pm) if weather and demand allow.
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Galerie du Vitrail Claude Barre
Ever wonder how stained glass is designed and put together? You can see firsthand at this workshop, whose artisans fill commissions from churches and private collectors.
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Chés Cabotans d'Amiens
A theatre whose stars are all traditional Picard marionettes. Great fun even if you don't speak Picard or French.
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Cathédrale Notre Dame
The largest Gothic cathedral in France (it's 145m long) and a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1981, this magnificent structure was begun in 1220 to house the skull of St John the Baptist , shown – framed in gold and jewels – in the northern outer wall of the ambulatory. Connoisseurs rave about the soaring Gothic arches (42.3m high over the transept), unity of style and immense interior, but for locals, the 17th-century statue known as the Ange Pleureur (Crying Angel), in the ambulatory directly behind the over-the-top baroque (18th century) high altar, remains a favourite.
The octagonal, 234m-long labyrinth on the black-and-white floor of the nave is easy to miss as t…
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Café Bissap
An ethnically mixed crowd, including students, sips rum cocktails and West African beers (eg Guinness Foreign Extra, brewed in Cameroon) amid decor from the Senegalese-born proprietor's native land. The soundtrack is African, Caribbean and Latin American. Super-friendly. Opens at 6pm during school holidays, including July and August.
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