After leaving Le Cateau-Cambrésis, I headed for Péronne and then Amiens. This route was beautiful, although the farther I get from the Belgian border, the more petites collines (small hills) I find. Perfectly fine on a bike normally, but a little tough going fully laden with panniers and tent and whatever produce or washing I've strapped on the side. I tried as much as I could to follow the Somme river . . . which tended to help in terms of elevation. It was strange to think of this region (as it was in Belgium) as part of the World War I Western Front. Such beautiful intensively rural (is that a term? Because I think it should be) landscapes.
Amiens was really interesting, with historical, literary, and architectural significance. I did a few touristy things, went and saw Jules Verne's house (he lived here for 14 years). . . and wandered around the streets for awhile, looking at buildings and statues and plaques with dates and information about the city.
I went for a tour of the hortillonages (an area of interconnected canals that used to be market gardens (think Thai floating markets, but with French/Dutch peasant outfits), and now is mainly overgrown residential flower and vegetable gardens in Amiens).
It ended up being me and the retirees, but I'm kind of used to that. Who else goes for a canal tour at 2pm on a Tuesday? Come to think of it, who else goes for a canal tour?
After that, I booked it over to a stained glass window museum, which had stained glass from the 16th century through today, and a workshop above. I somehow got ushered in and joined a class of intermediate/middle school kids that was taking a tour in the stained glass caves below the museum (I'm not sure about the rationale for the location). A little awkward, but fun I guess. Also, seeing all that stained glass made me much more excited to visited the Notre Dame d'Amiens.
The Notre Dame was next, and I was amazed by the size. How did these ever get built? The cathedral in Amiens was built between 1200 and 1270 in traditional gothic style. Like many of our grey stone buildings from antiquity, this cathedral was originally painted in a bright rainbow of colours. I believe that Amiens does a light show that projects the original colours onto the building, but I wasn't fortunate enough to see that.
The stained glass inside was beautiful, and had me itching to get my hands on a soldering iron. So many colours and ideas. One day I'll have access to a studio and just churn out these things that are burning themselves into my brain.
I also, as any amateur photographer does, got excited taking photographs of candles. So pretty.
About the only thing I wasn't so sure of, was the veneration of the head of St. Jean the Baptist. This practice of keeping relics of saints seems to me rather barbaric. If I were St. Jean the Baptist, I wouldn't want my head to be in one place, hand in another, and arm in yet another--and available for tourists to photograph. Seems blasphemous, dare I say? But maybe that is my lack of understanding of the christian faith. I believe I spent most of my young years in church either reading Roald Dahl, running along the back of the pews, or singing in the choir (and not comprehending the meaning of those songs, as I was too worried about coming in at the right time).
Amiens was really interesting, with historical, literary, and architectural significance. I did a few touristy things, went and saw Jules Verne's house (he lived here for 14 years). . . and wandered around the streets for awhile, looking at buildings and statues and plaques with dates and information about the city.
I went for a tour of the hortillonages (an area of interconnected canals that used to be market gardens (think Thai floating markets, but with French/Dutch peasant outfits), and now is mainly overgrown residential flower and vegetable gardens in Amiens).
It ended up being me and the retirees, but I'm kind of used to that. Who else goes for a canal tour at 2pm on a Tuesday? Come to think of it, who else goes for a canal tour?
After that, I booked it over to a stained glass window museum, which had stained glass from the 16th century through today, and a workshop above. I somehow got ushered in and joined a class of intermediate/middle school kids that was taking a tour in the stained glass caves below the museum (I'm not sure about the rationale for the location). A little awkward, but fun I guess. Also, seeing all that stained glass made me much more excited to visited the Notre Dame d'Amiens.
The Notre Dame was next, and I was amazed by the size. How did these ever get built? The cathedral in Amiens was built between 1200 and 1270 in traditional gothic style. Like many of our grey stone buildings from antiquity, this cathedral was originally painted in a bright rainbow of colours. I believe that Amiens does a light show that projects the original colours onto the building, but I wasn't fortunate enough to see that.
The stained glass inside was beautiful, and had me itching to get my hands on a soldering iron. So many colours and ideas. One day I'll have access to a studio and just churn out these things that are burning themselves into my brain.
I also, as any amateur photographer does, got excited taking photographs of candles. So pretty.
About the only thing I wasn't so sure of, was the veneration of the head of St. Jean the Baptist. This practice of keeping relics of saints seems to me rather barbaric. If I were St. Jean the Baptist, I wouldn't want my head to be in one place, hand in another, and arm in yet another--and available for tourists to photograph. Seems blasphemous, dare I say? But maybe that is my lack of understanding of the christian faith. I believe I spent most of my young years in church either reading Roald Dahl, running along the back of the pews, or singing in the choir (and not comprehending the meaning of those songs, as I was too worried about coming in at the right time).
St. Jean's head is pretty central to his martyrdom, so it's not surprising that it's considered a valuable relic (or that it's spent the years separate from the rest of his body).
ReplyDeleteI know it's central, but from what I understand other body parts are elsewhere, too. Just seems strange. But other than that these constructions are amazingly beautiful and really do tend to give the feeling of heaven on earth, or at least heaven linked to earth.
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