Day Eleven: Amiens, France

Amiens Cathedral

Interior Nave Amiens Cathedral

Today I visited the city of Amiens, in the Picardie region of Northern France.  The chief highlight of the city was the huge Gothic cathedral, which is the size of a football field.  The cathedral is very well preserved and beautiful.  While visiting the cathedral, I learned that Gothic cathedrals were very colorful back when they were built.  The statuary was painted with bright, vivid colors.  At Christmas the city puts on a laser lightshow that shows how the cathedral looked back during the Medieval period. 

Gargoyles Amiens Cathedral

Amiens

WWI Memorial

Amiens also has a strong Flemish character to its architecture, reminding me of the Low Countries, with small canals running through the heart of the city.  It’s obvious that Picardie, the Northeast region of France, was closely tied to Flanders and its wealthy wool merchants. 

The surrounding farmland was very lush and rich.  There were many WWI monuments, cemeteries and memorials.  They are still finding unexploded ordinance from the Battle of the Somme, which was fought right outside Amiens.  Over a million men died or suffered casualties during the battle, but today the farmland where the battle was fought looks so peaceful.  It’s hard to imagine the terrible carnage that happened here during WWI.