Shopping in France Amiens: Picturesque in Picardy
Amiens has everything: history, culture and a vast cathedral.
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WHERE?
WHERE? The capital of Picardy lies to the east of Lille in flat country that enhances the outline of its outstanding Gothic cathedral. The glory of Amiens, it has the largest area of any church in France and was the biggest building completed during the medieval period in all Europe. Medieval Amiens's prospered on woad, a plant that produced the famous Bleu d'Amiens, most of which was sold to Britain and helped to pay for the cathedral. Velvet followed woad as the city's principal product. During the 19th century, Amiens became the capital of corduroy and many people moved there from Lancashire, but foreign competition ate into the market and the last of 41 corduroy mills closed in 1982. A compelling picture of old Amiens before the bombardments of the First World War is given in Sebastian Faulks's moving novel Birdsong. Memorials in the cathedral to the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the Australian Imperial Force and the 6th Regiment of US Engineers indicate the cosmopolitan forces defending the city. Further despoliation was visited on the city in the Second World War, but much of the old city has been restored. The tourist office at 6 Rue Dusevel is close to the cathedral and is open Monday to Saturday 9am-7pm (6pm from October) and 10am-noon and 2pm-5pm on Sunday (00 33 3 22 71 60 50; www.amiens.com/tourisme; see also www.somme-tourisme.com). The top hotel in the city is Le Carlton at 42 Rue de Noyon opposite the station (00 33 3 22 97 72 22; www.lecarlton.fr). Rooms are soundproofed and some are decorated with murals of the city. Double rooms cost from €71 (£51) plus €8.50 (£6) for breakfast. Equally close is Express by Holiday Inn (00 33 3 22 22 38 50; www.hiexpress.com), with doubles from €87 (£62), including breakfast. Just off Square St Denis and ten minutes' walk from the station is Le Saint-Louis (00 33 3 22 91 76 03; www.le-saintlouis.com), which has a good restaurant. Doubles from €53 (£38) including breakfast. Amiens has dozens of restaurants to choose from, in three clusters around the station, the cathedral and St-Leu. Near the station is Le Bouchon at 10 Rue Alexandre Fatton which serves such accomplished fare that booking is needed mid-week (00 33 3 22 92 14 32; www.lebouchon.fr; set menus from €15-€42/£11-£30). Local specialities such as duck pie and saltmarsh lamb or roasted turbot with apricots are served at Les Marissons in an adapted 15th-century boatwright's workshop at Pont de la Dodane in St-Leu; (00 33 3 22 92 96 66; www.les-marissons.fr; menus from €18.50-€49/£13-£35). Regional specialities at La Table Picarde rate a Gault Millau recommendation; at 24 Place Parmentier, it is near the cathedral (00 33 3 22 92 57 54; menus from €12-€23/£9-£16). For a coffee, head for the former insurance office at 1 Rue Marotte-Amiens, now café and bar Le Marott Street (00 33 3 22 91 14 93). Built in 1892, this riot of Art Nouveau ironwork and stained glass is covered by a mosaic ceiling that still offers cover for "Incendiaries" and "Explosions". A non-smoking wine bar, Le Gout de la Vie, can be found at 30 Place René Gobet. WHY? Known as the "little Venice of the North", the district of St-Leu should not be missed. Close to the cathedral, it is best reached by Rue de Metz L'Evêque and Place du Don where the city's oldest houses are distinguished by their gables. The houses of St-Leu benefit from canal frontages, and many buildings still date from the Middle Ages. The remains of just two mills in the area recall the days of grinding corn and woad leaves. One of most extraordinary quarters of Amiens is the Hortillonnages, a vast area of gardens and trees interlaced by 465km of channels which were reclaimed from marshland by the Romans. For two millennia until the last century, this area provided the city with its vegetables, the produce being taken by canal to St-Leu and sold from the boats, rather like the floating markets of Bangkok. Ducks and herons still inhabit the willows and elders that line the banks. The entrance is at 54 Boulevard de Beauvillé(00 33 3 22 92 12 18) and tranquil €5 (£3.50) boat tours operate daily between April and October from 2pm, weather permitting. Many events are being planned during 2005 in both Amiens to mark the centenary of Jules Verne's death. Among the more unusual is the creation near Verne's house (see below) of a 200-metre hologram of the submarine Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. WHAT? To enjoy the atmosphere of the cathedral at its best, try to visit when the stones echo the Gregorian plain chant on Sundays or when a concert is held. The intricate carving of the statuary filling the deeply recessed entrances is matched by the exquisite carving of the choir-stalls with 3,650 figures depicting 400 scenes from the Old Testament. During the 4th Crusade, what is supposed to be the upper part of the skull of St John the Baptist, encased in a gold frame, was looted from Constantinople by a canon of Amiens who gave it to the cathedral bishop in 1206. It now occupies an ossuary in the north transept. The city's largest museum, Museé du Picardie at 48 Rue de la Republique, is predominantly an art gallery though it is also a regional history museum. It is open daily except Monday 10am-12.30pm and 2-6pm (00 33 3 22 97 14 00; www.amiens.com). In the 17th-century Hotel de Berny is a museum of the decorative arts and objets d'art, including a portrait of Choderlos de Laclos, author of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, who was born in Amiens in 1741. It's open from May to September on Thursday to Sunday from 2pm-6pm and during winter on Sunday from 10am-12.30pm, 2pm-6pm (00 33 3 22 97 14 00). A 16th-century house at 40 Rue Victor Hugo displays stained glass from the 13th to 20th centuries and is open daily except Sunday 3pm-6pm (00 33 3 22 91 81 18). The house at 2 rue Dubois where Jules Verne lived for most of his years in Amiens is a museum, though it is closed until December when a €2.5m (£1.8m) refurbishment will be unveiled (00 33 3 22 45 37 84; www.julesverne.fr). Nearby is the extraordinary circus that Verne did so much to bring into being while he was the councillor in charge of theatres and culture. The 16-sided polygon now bears his name and hosts a variety of events. The stables, hayracks and rings for horses and an elephant can still be seen beneath the 2000-seat auditorium. For more information contact Amiens tourism on 00 33 3 22 71 60 50; www.amiens.com/tourisme WOW! See the statue-encrusted entrance façade of the cathedral in the colours intended by its builders. Thanks to precise computer-generated projections, the stonework is returned to the rich colours in which it was once painted. The spectacle is created after dark between mid-June and the end of September and also in December. Times vary. TOP FIVE: SHOPPING Galerie des Antiquaries, in Passage Bélu off Quai Bélu in St-Leu, is a cluster of shops for collectors, open on Monday, Thursday and Friday from 3-7pm and at weekends from 11am-12.30pm and 3-7pm. If you need a gift, Mise en Scène at 21 Rue de Beauvais is the ideal place to find it (00 33 3 22 72 10 00). For fresh local produce to take home, there is no better place than Les Halles du Beffroi, the historic market in Place du Marché. Markets are held on Thursday and Saturday. Chocaholics should make for Maison Trogneux in Rue Delambre (00 33 3 22 71 17 17) which also sells macaroons, a speciality of Picardy since the 16th century, made with almonds, sugar, honey, egg whites and almond oil. JC Biguine is the place to go for fashion brands you won't find in the average British high street, such as the Belgian mais il est ou le soleil or Canisse from Aix en Provence. It's at 6 Rue du General Leclerc (00 33 3 22 97 98 98). CITY SHOPPER: LILLE, REIMS AND ROUEN LILLE Some people would happily go to Lille simply to buy gaufres fourrées from vintage patissier Meert, but there are plenty of other great shops in the lively northern French capital, most of them in the fine old red brick and stone Flemish buildings of picturesque Vieux Lille. Even the ornate Vieille Bourse is home to a handful of second-hand booksellers. Designer clothes labels abound on rue de la Grande-Chaussées, rue des Chats-Bossus and rue Lepelletier, with funkier fashions at Un Peu Plus au Nord (19 rue du Curé-St-Etienne), or along rue Basse, where you'll find Marithé et François Girbaud and Agnès b in two beautifully restored townhouses, and jewellery, clothes and decorative items at Bleu Natier. Vieux Lille is also a good source of gifts and homewares, particularly on rue de la Monnaie and the restored weavers' cottages around place aux Oignons. Tous les Jours Dimanche is a tea room-cum-decoration shop, near the cathedral. Look for furniture and idiosyncratic gifts on rue Esquermoise, and antiques dealers on rue Basse, rue Masurel and rue Royale. Neighbouring Roubaix (an easy tram or métro ride) attracts bargain-seekers to its discount factory outlets: purpose-built MacArthur Glen and L'Usine, a rehabilitated textile factory. Lille is also home to the Grand Braderie de Lille held each first weekend of September (from 3pm Saturday to midnight Sunday). The jumble sale to end all jumble sales draws over two million visitors from across northern Europe as antiques dealers and brocanteurs set out their stalls alongside locals clearing out their attics. Lille tourist office (00 33 3 59 57 94 00; www.lilletourism.com) REIMS The Champagne capital's gothic cathedral was where most of the French monarchs were crowned. The sculpted west front was brilliantly restored after the First World War (you can see some of the originals close-up in the Palais de Tau next door). Many of the leading Champagne producers, are situated near to Reims' other fine church, the Romanesque Basilique St-Remi. Tours of Champagne houses are a good insight into how bubbly is made - and you can of course taste and buy at the end. The impressive vaulted cellars of Taittinger in a former monastery and Champagne Pommery in ancient quarries with art nouveau reliefs by Gallé are two of the best. If want to take in some of the smaller producers, try Le Parvis in front of the cathedral which also sells specialities such as bouchons au marc (chocolate champagne corks filled with grape marc liqueur). The main shopping area lies between here and the busy pedestrianised Place Drouet d'Erlon, lined with hotels, brasseries and cinemas. There's a branch of Galeries Lafayette on rue de Vesle; the Maison Fossier home to the biscuit rose (a glorified pink boudoir biscuit) is on Cours Langlet; more oddball stores are in glass-roofed arcades such as Passage Subé. Take a look also at the circular place Royale for a glimpse of old Reims and the place du Forum with its Cryptoportiques, atmospheric underground Roman chambers, and the Renaissance Musée-Hôtel Le Vergeur. Over the summer, there are two or three classical and jazz concerts a day, most of them free, for the Flâneries Musicales (24 June-7 Aug). Reims tourism (00 33 3 26 77 45 00; www.reims-tourisme.com) ROUEN The capital of Normandy is a city of contradictions: on one hand half-timbered houses and the historic cathedral immortalised by Monet, on the other postwar reconstruction, the busy port area and the many routes along the Seine. The best shops congregate in the the centre, where rue du Gros-Horloge, with its famous gateway-clocktower, rue des Carmes and rue Ganterie abound in fashion boutiques. Specialist food shops are concentrated on rue Rollon, which runs into place du Marché with its busy restaurants, modern food market (Tue-Sun mornings) and boat-like church of St-Joan of Arc. Two other great addresses are Chocolats Auzou on rue du Gros-Horloge and vintage sweetshop Heloin (98 rue des Carmes). Running beside the cathedral, rue St-Romain has several faience outlets including Fayencerie Augy, where you can watch traditional glazed earthenware pottery being hand-painted. From 4 June to 17 September there will be a spectacular light show projected onto the Cathedral, exploring the history of art from the impressionism of Monet to the present day. (Free. Every evening at nightfall) Rouen tourist office (00 33 2 32 08 32 40; www.rouentourisme.com)
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