Amiens Off The Beaten Path

This huge red brick church wsa built in 1897 and is capped with a gilded statue of the virgin holding a child high above her head. Duing the first world war a German shell dislodged the statue and it hung but never fell. It was thought that the day the statue fell the war would come to an end. The germans did indeed occupy Albert where the church stands but the British did not want them to have a good vantage point from the tower so they demolished the tower and the madonna fell. This was on 16th April 1918 just a few months before the war ended. An omen perhaps?

Thiepval is the largest war memorial to the missing from any war in which British soldiers have died. It stands on it's own in a quiet part of the Somme region. 72000 names of missing soldiers are engraved into the 16 columns which make up this memorial. It is maintained by the War Graves Commission. I felt very moved by just being there. People come from all over to find names and schoolchildren come to see for temselves the thousands of names on this huge memorial

This informative museum is in town called Peronne a few miles from Amiens. It depicts life in the first world war and has good examples of the uniforms and provisions that soldiers would have carried during their tour of duty during those dark days. There are free audio giuides which are very ueseful. There is also a shop and a cafe.

This abbey is in the centre of Corbie and is only about a third of it's original size.
The town grew up around the 7th century abbey. The abbey church of St-Pierre contains treasures including an early Byzantine painting of the face of Jesus and a fragment of the True Cross acquired in 1242 after the first crusade.

This place has got an interesting history.
Since the 11th century people were hiding
in these self created caves.

Every day there a a few guided tours in
these 3 km long corridors.
The tour is in French...I don't think it is that
interesting if you don't understand French.

It gives you a good impression on how life
must have been underhere.
They tell all sorts of interesting facts...
Like the heating. How did they get it a little warm?
If you make fire , you will suffocate for sure.


The museum that follows afterwards the tour
is quit hilarious. It is with an audio-tape and
wax puppets who tell the life in French village
years ago. There is no escape ladies and
gentlemen. Just under go it.

Afterwards you can take a walk up the hill and
go have a look at the animals. Deer , rabbits...
Or you can take the little train to admire the
two mills.

Anyway , we had a good time.

Amiens is not just the cathedral and the medieval area around. The whole city is nice and did not change too much in the 20th century. This is an example of what you can find in the area south of the cathedral, about 20 minutes walk.

The city has been partially destroyed during the Great War. Many old buildings have survived though. In this page you can see some of them. This is a picture of the Hôtel de Berny, that hosts the Museum of local art and regional history.

A lovely building in a lovely town. We were told that the place was built for a local girl who married a wealthy person from out of the area. Corbie is a few miles frm Amiens