On Friday I went on a city tour of Amiens!

There’s Amiens! It’s in northern France.  I took a 1.5 hour train ride with some friends, we got our own little room on the way up; we felt like we were going to Hogwarts!!

There were 8 EDUCO students and a personal guide.  We first went on a boat tour.  The boat was just big enough to fit the 9 of us and a man to steer.  We learned about the history and culture of this city and got to see the countryside from the Somme river (the battle of the somme from WW1 was fought up by the coast on this same river; Unfortunately part of this city got destroyed and had to be reconstructed from the world wars).  This was super relaxing and peaceful.  We saw scarecrows, local produce, flowers, etc.  We really lucked out that it didn’t rain!

Then we got a tour of the inner city on foot.  The town was adorable! There was a more old-fashioned part with wooden wall decorations, and a newer part of town with Sephora, Zara, etc.  There are canals throughout the city!  Almost all the buildings are two stories, so the cathedral really stands out above the rest. We ate lunch at an adorable restaurant named Tante Jeanne.  I had a delicious gallette (savory crêpe).  I also had a Glace Dame Blanche which is chocolate sauce with special vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, all made locally!!

This town is well known for its cathedral Notre Dame.  The style is somewhat similar to the cathedral in Paris; however this one is much bigger.  Also, the two sides of the cathedral are different heights.  This is one of the first times where the people on the sides of the cathedral look more normal.  Instead of using the people for the supports, they used supports and then put people!  Plus, the faces are all very vivid and the architect intentionally put the heads facing down so they could be seen.  If you look closely in one of my photos, you can see carvings of the zodiac signs too!  Inside the cathedral was magnificent.  One of the remarkable things about this cathedral was that it has part of the scull of Jean Baptiste (John the Baptist).  Feel free to click on the photos below and they’ll get bigger.

We ended our day by going to a local chocolatier and trying macaron’s in the style of Amiens.  Here they are almond flavored and circular instead of the typical parisien style!

The train ride home was a mess. Unfortunately going to Paris on a Friday night is a popular thing to do, so we had to stand on the train like it was a métro… only this ride lasted 1.5 hours 🙁