Monday 21st July 2026

Amiens, France.

We woke after close to ten hours sleep.

Ten.

Hours.

Life seemed better. And there was breakfast that was going to be prepared for us, with no washing up afterwards.

That's living alright.

Outside it looked warm already. Time would tell.

We went down for breakfast, there was fruit, bready stuff, croissants, coffee, Nutella. All the major food groups.

We filled our boots, by which time it was just after eight. And the cathedral opened at half seven.

We walked outside to the car, and in the shade of the hotel it was lovely and cool, but wouldn't stay that way for long.

We programmed a parking house nearby, I fired up the horses in the car, and we lurched off towards the city centre.

For a Monday morning, traffic was light, so we cruised carefully into the centre, turning down a side road, then down the ramp to the underground parking house.

Whether we would find our way back again after our visit and lunch would be another matter.

We had seen the cathedral, the largest by volume in France, apparently., on the way into the centre. To say it towered over the surrounding area would be something of an understatement.

But once we parked, walked up the the street level, and at the next junction we looked to the left and there was the roof of the cathedral.

We'd go that way.

Five minutes later, after walking down an alley paved with white marble, we came to the south-west corner of the church.

Entrance by the south door, a sign seemed to be suggesting.

We walked along the southside, and there was an open door. We went in.

Inside was a space at least as large as St Paul's in London, but untouched by puritans or time, A Baroque pulpit, covered in gold leaf caught the eye.

I took a shot, and a guy came over to engage me in conversation. As my French is below middle school standard, and his English was little better, but he seemed to be suggesting that I was taking my photos wrong.

I said thanks, tried to explain the hand-held night-shooting mode, but went over his head.

He came back, and showed me a video of his work. Not sure if he was trying to get me to employ him to take shots.

I explained I had some 50,000 pictures of churches, and I really did know what what I was doing.

When he came back a third time, I guess I became rude. As ride as you can be in fractured Franglais.

He walked off.

Phew.

I went round snapping the scenes, chapels and details, then switched to the big lens for more details and the stained glass windows.

Meanwhile, at nine, Mass began, and the cathedral was filled with the harmonised voices of the choir, then the benediction read out.

Amen.

Amiens, and the Valley of the Somme, was the centre of the First World War battle of the same name, so the cathedral has memorials to nations and battalions that sacrificed themselves in the defence of the city and area.

There is little evidence of the war now, other than the occasional memorial, the city is rebuilt and vibrant.

We walked back outside, into the bright sunshine, and temperatures were some ten degrees higher than went we entered.

Next on the list were the "floating gardens" of Les Hortillonnages. Of which we had no idea what they were, but was high on the top rated attractions in the city.

We walked down from the butte that the cathedral straddles, and came across a small stream, running in the lea of the cathedral. On the other was a row of houses with shops in their ground floors, and behind all had identical metal spiral staircases.

The road in front was filled with fast food joints, discotheques, and other shops, all closed at half eleven, though some stayed open until 05:00.

On the left a road opened up, and there over the main road was the Somme river, also lined with restaurants, bars, and shops. The maps app said to carry on, so we did.

We crossed the river beside another main road, then the way was down a steep curving road to the riverbanks. On the side was a brasserie, where we called in for a cold drink. And then a beer.

We went back out and down to the riverbank, walking along hoping to see an entrance. We did find it, but turns out the public part doesn't open until one, and it was too hot to wait.

We explored further along, where there was a mixture of houses, summer houses and allotments, all on small islands separated with by ditches or minor stretches of the river.

It was all very nice, and peaceful despite being only a short walk from the city centre. But all private.

We sat and watched the wildlife: dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies and birds, while a couple of boats chugged by.

Thoughts turned to lunch, so we walked back towards the cathedral, stopping for a drink at the same brasserie, then along the river where we took a shaded table at a café, and ordered pork something. Which came with a very thin carrot, some kind of root vegetable (half of) and a sauce.

It was so pleasant sitting and eating watching the world go by, we had dessert and a coffee.

Back to the cathedral to take shots of the statues and triple doors at the west end, by which time it was hot indeed, so we made our way back to the parking garage, paid the fee and drove back to street level.

Our journey back to the hotel wasn't helped by a failure of the net, and the road the hotel is on is so new the car's sat nav didn't have it listed. However, nearby was Rue de Christ, which we remembered the name of, so programmed that in, which got us withing a mile of the hotel, at which point the internet came back and we found our way back.

Before going to the room, we went over the road to the corner store to buy beer, mile, sandwiches and crips, so we would not go down to eat.

And finally up the the air conditioned coolness of the room, where i cracked open the family sized bottle of Le Chouffe as I reviewed my shots from the day.