Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, 120 km (75 mi) north of Paris and 100 km (62 mi) south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy. The city had a population of 134,000. The Somme canal runs through the town to the English Channel. This canal is linked to the Canal du Nord (Paris to Lille metropolitan area).
St-Leu is a part of Amiens north of the town centre. Its has many older wooden and brick houses and several canals. It was a poor part of town, but since extensive renovation in the 1990s it has become popular with tourists and students as a pretty area with a high concentration of cafés, restaurants and night clubs. Local culture is offered by Chés Cabotans theatre (puppet shows in the Picard language) and ‘La Lune des Pirates’, a concert hall. Amiens University’s Faculty of Sciences and its Faculty of Law & Economics are located in Saint-Leu.
Situated in between the east of the citadel and the Madeleine cemetery, St-Maurice is one of the industrial parts of Amiens. It is a working-class area which is currently being renovated and rearranged. The walls of the town’s former factory of dye are now those of the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design (ESAD) as well as those of the Faculty of Arts. The École supérieure d’ingénieurs en électronique et électrotechnique (ESIEE) is in the same neighbourhood.
The Henriville neighbourhood was mostly built during the 19th century after the demolition of the city wall. It lies at the south of the town centre. It has numerous bourgeois houses and townhouses, such as Jules Verne’s house, in architectural styles of the period, including neoclassical and neogothic. Among the many sights (Liste des monuments historiques d’Amiens) are:
Amiens Cathedral is the tallest of the large ‘classic’ Gothic churches of the 13th century and is the largest in France of its kind. After a fire destroyed the former cathedral, the new nave was begun in 1220 – and finished in 1247. Amiens Cathedral is notable for the coherence of its plan, the beauty of its three-tier interior elevation, the particularly fine display of sculptures on the principal façade and in the south transept, and the labyrinth, and other inlays of its floor. It is described as the “Parthenon of Gothic architecture”, and by John Ruskin as “Gothic, clear of Roman tradition and of Arabian taint, Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable, and unaccusable.”
The Municipal Circus, also known as the Cirque Jules Verne, is one of the few remaining permanent circuses (in French: “Cirque en dur”) in the world, one of seven in France and is still in use today. Originally built from timber it is now a stone structure.
Amiens is also known for the hortillonnages, gardens on small islands in the marshland between the River Somme and River Avre, surrounded by a grid network of man-made canals (locally known as “rieux”). They are also known as the “floating gardens of Amiens”. Because of the canals, the hortillonnages are sometimes called “Little Venice of the North”.
