This is another wonderful city to walk in my belle France. The City of Amiens is only 115 km from Paris and 154 km from Versailles, easy accessable. An excellent train station Gare d’Amiens and 38 km from Amiens you have TGV connection with the TGV Haute Picardie station. The Amiens train station (known locally as “Gare du Nord”), is located in the immediate vicinity of the city center.Started as Gare du Nord in 1846. The station has six platforms, serving eleven tracks,The Amiens “star railway”, which is composed of eight branches allowing to reach Paris-Nord (via Creil), Compiègne (via Montdidier), Lille-Flandres (via Arras and Douai), Calais-Ville (via Abbeville and Boulogne-Ville), Rouen-Rive-Droite (via Abancourt and Serqueux), Laon (via Tergnier) , and formerly Frévent (via Doullens) and Beauvais (via Crèvecœur-le-Grand). Passage from one platform to another is via a covered walkway, equipped with stairs fixed and mechanical, and two elevators; it makes it possible to reach all the platforms. The lower concourse only gives access to tracks 7-12. There is also an underpass linking most platforms.
In the neighborhood of Saint Leu the town relive with modernity and keeping the old traditions of this great city of the north. This is the neightborhood of the artists and which the arm of the Somme river was a big help. Saint Leu was a little Venice of the North for Louis XI. A trip on its canals is a good initiation to the beat of Amiens. By the Pont de la Dodane, and to the left the quai Bélu de la Queue de la Vache it was here that the beast were brought to the river, today is a big nightime of the locals is here. At no 35 there is a narrow impasse with colorful houses, and the passage Bélu few meters open the antiques and fleas market. Going back out to the Pont du Cange the oldest in Amiens has lost two towers on the right the quai Parmentier the place of meeting of the market gardeners and gourmets every Saturday. You go on to the picturesque streets of Rue des Archers, rue des Coches, rue de Parcheminiers, will get you started in old Saint Leu showing the old traditions. At the corner of rue de la Dodane and rue Motte, see several beautiful colorful houses with different materials from wood, to red bars, alternative of bricks to bring out the chalk or the flat tile or pan de Beauvais. On the other side of the river, see at No 56 the narrowest house in Saint Leu and at no 58 with four meters facade and two meters across a typicla house of Amiens. The rue Canteraine takes you to the pont à Moinet the most elegant. The passarelle to the right takes you to place Aristide Briand where on a green spot see Lafleur the homegrown puppet . You can see performances at the Théatre Chés Cabotans d’Amiens at 31 rue Edouard David, The Saint-Leu Church is located in the Saint-Leu district in the city center of Amiens. It is, after the cathedral to which it is very close, the oldest church in Amiens. The history of the Church of Saint Leu is truly known to us from the 15C, a period of prosperity found for the city of Amiens. The church was rebuilt and returned to worship in 1449. It is in flamboyant Gothic style. It was enlarged at the end of the 15C. The bell tower-porch was built around 1500. The entrance gate located at the southern base of the bell tower was redone in the 19C.In 1793, during the French revolution, the Saint Leu Church was stripped of its furniture and transformed into a fodder store for the army. Under the Directory, the Church of Saint Leu was returned to worship in 1796. In 1918, the last old stained glass windows in the church were destroyed by bombing during the German offensive in WWI. In WWII bombing spared the church.
A symbol of the reconstruction of Amiens after WWII is the Tour Perret near the gare or train station , of which area was totally destroyed by bombings of 1944. The tower opened in 1952 and has the name of the architect that built it, Auguste Perret. It has a height of 110 meters and for a long time was the highest building in Europe, visible from several km around the City, After the interior fittings, the Perret Tower was finally inaugurated on July 24, 1960, n 2005, the project to modify the top of the Perret tower was completed. A glass cube that marks the hours by means of a luminous breath raises its top by six meters.
The Hôtel de Ville or City/Town hall of Amiens is a building from the 18-19C located in the city center of Amiens, It was built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheater built between the end of the 1C and the middle of the 2C. At the end of the 3C, the amphitheater was transformed into a castrum. The town had to acquire a private mansion, the Hôtel des Cloquiers, to hold meetings of the Alderman Council and house its administrative services. In the middle of the 16C, the city of Amiens built a City/Town hall there. From this first City/Town hall, built between 1551 and 1600, we have an engraving of Le Soing c 1704 representing the brick and stone facade with its decoration of pilasters, pediment, trophies and royal and municipal coats of arms. In 1756, ordered was given to build a new City/Town hall to overcome the shortcomings of the old one. The main facade looked at the Place au Fil and the Beffroi or Belfry. In the middle of the 19C, due to population growth, the enlargement of the City/Town hall was decided . From 1856 to 1886, the two wings and the two pavilions at each end were added. The main entrance was now placed on the south facade overlooking the main courtyard closed by a gate.The construction of these two wings led to the destruction of vestiges of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre. In 1992, the gates were dismantled and reassembled at the entrance to the Parc de la Hotoie.The entrance is marked by a slightly projecting pavilion, which is reached by a staircase of about ten steps. Upstairs, a gallery gives access to the reception rooms. The frontispiece is framed by the four statues at the foot of the gallery: at the ends, two aldermen who tried to resist the Spaniards during the capture of Amiens in 1597, François de Blayries (on the left) ; Le Mattre (right); in the center, Charles-Florimond Le Roux, last mayor of the Ancien Régime and deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates General of 1789 (left), and Antoine Clabaut, mayor of the 15C (right).
And one for the memories of our visits here while living in Versailles which allows us to come often, was to have our lunch here. We came first , we like it and kept coming back wherever in town or passing by . This was the former Brasserie Le Queen’s at 3 Place Gambetta. It was a very good brasserie, you could eat traditional dishes, fair price, super-friendly welcome, for a lunch. The Brasserie Le Queen or brewery closed and replaced by a new one called Les 3 Cailloux. I have not tried the new place, so the memories of the old one still rings with us, We found it at random walking from the train station ! many trips back, and now another spot in my memory lane book.
The city of Amiens on its heritage: https://www.amiens.fr/Vivre-a-Amiens/Culture-Patrimoine/Patrimoine-mondial
The Amiens tourist office on its heritage: https://www.visit-amiens.com/culture-heritage
The SNCF on the Amiens train station : https://www.garesetconnexions.sncf/fr/gare/frqam/amiens
The official Théâtre Ches Cabotans Damiens : https://www.ches-cabotans-damiens.com/
There you go folks, we came to Amiens for the arts ;the history, the heritage. Nice city,and still in the off the beaten path trail of my belle France, Again, hope you enjoy the post on the curiosities of Amiens, part I as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!! 
Paris1972-Versailles2003 