We had arrived in Amiens the previous day and now we are exploring the old city. It is always a good idea to check out the Tourism information available for the city and its surrounds. We had located the train station from which our bus to the Australian War Memorial would depart at 03.15am tomorrow so we did not plan to exert ourselves too much. After finding the train station we obtained a map of the city and located the Office de Tourisme near the Cathedral Notre Dame.
Once in the Office de Tourisme, we learned that we could take a self-guided walk through the old city. Armed with the map and brochure, we set off. The first stop was the Cathedral in the Notre Dame quarter. Behind the cathedral we found the Bishops gardens. Sedate, green and colourful it was a pleasant change to the noise of the city. From the garden we passed into the lower town and entering the Saint – Leu quarter and Rue du Hocquet. This is where one will find the oldest houses of Amiens sited on the bank of the canal. Originally they were designed with a shop or merchants stand on the road level with living quarters above. Many had been restored but others were not even fit or safe for the pigeons. Some even needed bridges across the canal to their front doors.
Our journey followed the canals past the Church of Saint Leu and the Universite de Picardie Jules Verne. Amiens reminded us of Venice in some ways. This had also been a centre of industry with 25 watermills operating grinding wheat and woad leaf and other industries. We passed a number of different building styles but one building caught our eyes – this building had no right to be standing. A little further along we came to the Place Aristide- Briand where the typical building style of weatherboard at the ground floor and a first story in cob (a mixture of straw and clay pasted over slated timber then plastered. We also saw some of the residents of the canal.
From there we entered Rue Motte and its myriad of smaller streets echoing the trades of the past – rue des Arches (archers), rue des Clarions (bugles), passage des coches (horse drawn carriages). We were now close to the finish of our tour and we found ourselves in Rue Belu and near our apartment. Rue Belu is also known as Quai Belu but its former name had far more charm – Rue de la Queue de Vache (Cow Tail St.) as it was here that animals were brought to drink from a public trough. The drinking trough for animals is gone and replaced with human troughs – Restaurants.
So we returned to the Apartment to rest as we would be arising at 02.00am the next morning to travel to the dawn service. On the way we passed Pont du Cange the oldest bridge in Amiens still showing signs of the old fortifications that once protected the city and the Water Market where the “hortillons” (marsh vegetable farmers) brought their goods via the canals to the market. A market continues to operate on the site every Saturday. We planned to visit des Hortillonnages but after our rest.
glendon1954 