Swallows and Amazons, The Wind in the Willows – every literary image of messing about in boats in the most rustic style imaginable came to me as we gently motored along the tree-lined waterways and floating gardens of Amiens.
As if on cue, a kingfisher darted across the water, adding a flash of blue to the grey November sky and golden leaves that were still clinging to the trees. We were in the Hortillonnages, the intricate patchwork of channels, islands, streams, floating gardens and even art installations that turn the River Somme into a magical watery world.
Using a quiet electric engine, Pascal Goujon (or Paco, as he’s usually known) took us through this marshy mosaic of 300 hectares where, for generations, the people of Amiens cultivated their market gardens on these islets.
While the current number of market gardeners is only a fraction of what it was a century ago, their seasonal produce still ends up every Saturday in the food stalls in Place Parmentier overlooking the Somme and, by extension, on the menus of many of the city’s restaurants.
It was yet another pleasant surprise about Amiens, the ancient capital of Picardie (now part of the Hauts-de-France region), which I’d always passed on the way to somewhere else but somehow never stopped. The lure of the nearby coast had always been too strong, particularly the two villages facing each other across the Baie de Somme, St-Valéry-sur-Somme and Le Crotoy.
But here within a two-hour drive from Calais’s Le Shuttle terminal was a buzzing university city with the largest Gothic cathedral in France, some excellent restaurants and museums, lively studenty bars, imaginative street art and, thanks to the network of waterways running through the city, some wonderfully quirky architecture.
Like many cities in northern France that had suffered heavy damage during the world wars of the 20th century, Amiens had to be reconstructed, which is why there’s a wealth of architecture that looks as if it’s been undisturbed for centuries.
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And until 29 December, Amiens hosts northern France’s largest Christmas market, which takes over the length of the city’s main shopping street, the pedestrianised Rue des Trois Cailloux. The market stalls also creep into the lanes leading to the magnificent 13th-century Notre-Dame Cathedral, whose nightly illuminations form part of the Christmas festivities, before diving deep into the medieval Saint-Leu quarter and across the River Somme into the restaurant-lined Quai Bélu.
I was there before the Christmas market opened, but Saint-Leu didn’t need any seasonal sparkle to work its magic on me. At once I was captivated by its rows of colourful little houses, some half-timbered, others in clapboard. The gabled houses along Rue du Don are accessible by individual gated bridges across a narrow waterway, a reminder of the medieval watermills that powered the work of weavers, millers and dyers. Running parallel is the cobbled Rue du Hocquet with more picturesque houses, some of which have been turned into shops and cafés.
This led me to Rue des Bondes, whose café terraces spill out onto the cobbles and straddle both sides of the little canal that flows into the Somme. With the university so close by, I wasn’t surprised to find the whole area thronging with students. Things were marginally quieter across the Somme on Quai Bélu, where some of the riverside restaurants were already into their winter hours. An honourable exception was Le Dos d’Âne, a friendly little place that specialised in galettes and produced the most sublime quiche oozing with pungent northern French maroilles cheese (there were more cheesy delights at nearby Le Quai, too).
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In fact, eating well isn’t difficult in Amiens, I soon discovered. At Hyacinthe, where the majority of its creative menu comes from within a 100km radius, you can taste vegetables grown in the Hortillonnages along with Picardie beef, pork and veal, and the prized lamb that feeds on the saltmarshes of the Baie de Somme. In this land of cheese and cheese dishes, Amiens has its own speciality – ficelle, a savoury pancake filled with ham and mushrooms and smothered in melted cheese and a creamy sauce. It’s usually served as a starter, so choose your second course wisely.
Where there’s savoury there’s sweet, specifically the confections at Jean Trogneux, a chocolate shop that’s been running since 1872. It’s now on its sixth generation of chocolatiers, 31-year-old Jean-Baptiste Trogneux, who introduced me to the macarons d’Amiens. Not, as I immediately assumed, the ubiquitous brightly coloured meringues, but a chunky almond disc almost like a spongey Bakewell tart.
“In France, there are more than 20 kinds of macaron,” he told me. “This one was created by Jean-Baptiste, my great-great-great-great-grandfather, and we haven’t changed the recipe since. Of course, the first ingredient is almonds, which come from Valencia. They’re known to be the best almonds in the world.” The result was deliciously soft and chewy, the almonds delicately sweetened by honey. It was only after I left the shop that I remembered that Jean-Baptiste’s great-aunt is Brigitte Macron, wife of France’s president, both of whom were born in Amiens.
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I didn’t have to go far to find evidence of another famous Amiénois. Although Jules Verne was born in Nantes, he made Amiens his home from 1871 until he died in 1905. The mansion where he lived from 1882 to 1900, La Maison de Jules Verne, is a fascinating re-creation of the author’s life and work, transporting me to the rich literary world of the 19th century.
For a double dose of culture, save a few euros by buying a combined ticket to his house and the Musée de Picardie, the first in France erected specifically as a museum. This palatial 19th-century building takes you from antiquity to the 20th century via a compelling collection of artefacts and art from France and around the world.
My favourite salon was the one devoted to paintings of ordinary life in Picardie and neighbouring Côte d’Opale over the centuries. On the journey back to Calais as we stopped for a late lunch of mussels in Le Crotoy (where, incidentally, Jules Verne had a summer home and kept his boat), I recalled those 19th-century paintings showing women on the Picardie coast arduously collecting molluscs in the muddy sands. True, I couldn’t resist the waterside once again, but this time I knew what urban charms lay just up the river.
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How to do it
Mary Novakovich was a guest of Hauts-de-France Tourism, Amiens Tourism and Le Shuttle, which has return Folkestone-Calais crossings from £178. Ibis Styles Amiens Centre is a stylish hotel near the railway station with a funky restaurant and bar. Doubles from €127, including breakfast. Boat trips in the Hortillonnages are bookable by text to +33 06 89 43 21 and cost €13 for a 50-minute afternoon trip and €24 for a 2.15-hour morning journey.
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