I’m trying to get back into writing more. I am skipping the years of travel missed and moving right into this year (well, the second trip this year). I did have my hand surgery in February, and it’s healing as well as can be expected.
The palm scar has mostly disappeared, but the writ one still looks gruesome. I look forward to being able to open a bottle top again. I hope to drag out doing the other hand even though it is quite painful now, thanks to my favoring the other.
We recently came back from a two-week trip to Northern France, encompassing four cities: Amiens, Lille, Reims, and finally Paris.
So, let me start with a confession. I tried to be clever and save some money on flights, and it absolutely backfired on me. Instead of flying into Paris and taking the train to Amiens, as any sensible person would, I found what looked like a great deal: fly into a smaller regional airport (Beauvais), about 70 miles from Paris. On paper, it sounded good. In real life? Not even close.
The sucky thing was that the airport only had one bus connection to Amiens, and it ran just before 1 pm. Thanks to Google Translate, I somehow missed the warning that they often cancel the morning bus, assuming there had been one. That’s how few people go to Amiens, I guess.
We landed at 7 am. That’s five hours plus, that we had to wait at the little airport; it was raining buckets from the second we landed. Five hours in a tiny airport with our luggage and our hunger. The place had only two cafes, and most seats were taken.
We finally found a table and nursed our croissants and coffee for like three hours! There were also these little flying birds everywhere (a sign I noticed later said they were on the endangered list and not to feed them). If you know me, you know every animal except dogs scares me, so I was constantly on alert and shooing them away.
To make it even more fun, Fede had packed an umbrella, bless him, except somewhere along the way it had lost all its little metal spokes, so it was basically a sad, floppy piece of fabric on a stick. We were soaked, especially me, because I refused to get under it. He looked pathetic… hahah!
No taxis at the stand either when we finally made it to the Amiens bus station, so we dragged our luggage over a kilometer in the rain (it never stopped raining) before we made it to our hotel in the old town.
Would I do it this way again? Absolutely not! (I think, but I am cheap in some ways, so who knows…). The best thing would have been to fly into Paris and hop on the train to Amiens. At least for the wait, you’d be under cover, plus lots of great eateries and shopping, even.
Amiens Saved Us:
Once we actually arrived in the city, everything changed. Amiens is genuinely adorable, a place where you immediately think why doesn’t anyone talk about this more? It’s charming, walkable, and has this lovely unhurried feel to it. I can’t even remember what led me to consider it.
Our priority was food, obviously, because we were starving. We stumbled upon a little restaurant near the cathedral, and I have to say that it had the most wonderful koi fish pond surrounding us, which was not something I expected to find, and the burgers were absolutely fantastic. After the morning we’d had, it felt like the universe was apologizing. We sat, we ate, we dried out a little, and suddenly everything was fine again.
The Amiens Cathedral: The big draw
You cannot go to Amiens without visiting the Cathedral Notre-Dame d’Amiens. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and honestly one of the most impressive Gothic cathedrals I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been inside quite a few!
It’s the largest Gothic cathedral in France, which you absolutely feel when you walk through the doors. The sheer scale of it is breathtaking. The soaring ceilings, the intricate carvings, the gorgeous rose windows letting the light in… Fede and I stood there in awe. I thought I was over cathedrals. If you’re into history and architecture (even a little bit!), this alone is worth the trip to Amiens.
A Few More Reasons to Love Amiens
Amiens also has these beautiful floating gardens called the hortillonnages: a network of little islands and waterways that you can explore by boat. It’s peaceful and unlike anything we’d seen before. The old quarter of Saint-Leu, with its colourful houses along the water, is incredibly photogenic too. The city reminds me a lot of Amsterdam.
There’s a lovely connection to Jules Verne here, the author of Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, who spent much of his life in Amiens. You can visit his house, which is now a museum.
Even if you’re not a huge Jules Verne fan, it’s a fascinating little peek into 19th-century life. There’s a park across from the museum that has some quotes from the different books. We loved sitting on a bench and watching the world move by slowly.
There’s a zoological park, the Picardy museum (based on the Louvre model), and lovely green spaces.
Amiens is also a college town, so plenty of young people there. The food prices were reasonable because of this, so that was a bonus.
Would We Go Back?
In a heartbeat. Despite the terrible start, Amiens won us over. It’s a place that doesn’t try too hard. The two days felt both like enough to see the highlights and not quite enough to do everything justice.
If you’re planning a trip to northern France, don’t skip Amiens, just do yourself a favour, fly into Paris and take the train. 🙂
Delighted to see you are posting again, but sorry to hear about your hand surgery. I hope with time you will fully recover. Never knew a thing about Amiens, do it was interesting to read your take on it. Glad that the burger and fries were delicious after your tough travel day and the rain. I look forward to reading about the other towns you saw in northern France.
Thanks Annie, I hope you guys are well! Yeah, all of a sudden, I am feeling old :-). I was so thrilled to finally be able to hold tweezers in my hand (whoopee…those errant were toast after so long). I still remember that burger. It was that good.Thanks for sticking with us :-).
Bon Jour Kem Kem!
Speedy recovery with your hand.
Happy you are back chronicling your travel adventures with photos of food and interesting locales.
Have you ever done a listing of great places to eat and see in Valencia? Thanks and Be well!
Bon jour! Thanks for the best wishes :-). No, I haven’t done a Valencia focused places to eat and see. Come to think of it, I never did on https://expatinvalencia.com site either. Something to think about, and might do, but it would more than likely be on that site. Good health to you too (never realized how much that means…haha!).
Great to see you posting again, KemKem. You are good at it! Now I want to go to Amiens!
Thanks Caroline! Hope you guys are good. It’s been such a long time and I hope to get my streak going again. It’s worth it, Amiens. We even missed a really great part of the old town, and saw it as we left for the train station on the way to Lille.
Hello again, Kemkem! What a wonderful surprise to see you’re posting again about your travels! I absolutely loved hearing about your trip and seeing the pics! Amiens is now on our list of places to visit, and we will heed your advice and fly into Paris & take the train. I do love history & architecture & would love to see the cathedral. Speaking of, you probably won’t remember this, but the last time I commented on one of your blogs, I was still living in the U.S., but we finally moved to Valencia last summer and we love it! When people ask why we chose Valencia, I tell them how I found your blog pre-pandemic, followed you & Fede during & after the pandemic & beyond, and how your chronicles, interviews, grocery hauls & pictures helped me envision what our lives could be here. So I’m thrilled to see you writing again! And on that note, I wish you a speedy recovery on your hand surgery. Cheers!
Hello! What an amazingly fantastic email to wake up to, and thank you for saying it :-). I really hope I can come back stronger than before. I think I also got tired of seeing so many influencers and such in Valencia that it felt like I should pull back, and then the days morphed…haha!
I am so glad you ended up making the move and even better that you’re loving it. It is a beautiful place. Please get in touch (send an email and we can at least meet :-). Aha… so people will bla,e me even more for the U.S invasion. Thanks for the best wishes. I swear I always said I would go out with exactly the body I came with, no slice and dice or removal of anything 🙂
You will most definitely love Amiens if you like history and architecture. I was surprised at how big it was. There are also places within a half hour bus rides that have more wonderful historical sites. I wish we had spent another day or two so we would definitely go back.