Paris1972-Versailles2003

The wonderful architecturally and historical City of Abbeville. We came here first several years back when living in Versailles. This would my introduction post on Abbeville, therefore, will be in my black and white series, no pictures, Therefore, let me tell you about this is Abbeville !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The City of Abbeville is located in the Somme department,no 80 in the Hauts-de-France region of my belle France. It was part of the province and then the administrative region of Picardy until 2015. It is 50 km from Amiens, 77 km from Dieppe, 80 km from Arras, 82 km from Boulogne-sur-Mer, 104 km from Rouen, 202 km from Versailles, and 555 km from my current home. Abbeville is served by two autoroutes/highways ; the A16 , which connects the Paris region to the Belgian border via Beauvais, Amiens, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, and Dunkirk, and the A28 which runs from Abbeville towards Rouen, Alençon, Le Mans, and Tours. We came here from Versailles by leaving the City by the Place de la Loi getting into Le Chesnay-Roquecourt alone rue de Versailles becoming the D321 road then bearing right on the D128 or Avenue Charles de Gaulle continue bearing right onto the D174 passing by La Celle Saint Cloud with the Sablons building on your left continue on the D173 same road continue and go over the tolls of the A86 onto the D913 by Rueil-Malmaison continue to bearing left get onto the A86 beltway highway passing Nanterre to exit/sortie 2B Bezons getting onto the D992 road go over the pont de Bezons over the Seine river and make a quick right onto the Quai Voltaire or D311 road alongside the Seine on your right hand side continue to exit/sortie 2 Enghiens les Bains on the A15 autoroute then bear right onto the A115 dir Calais/Amiens/Beauvais continue bear right onto the N184 road dir A16 CDG Airport until bearing left get on the A16 autoroute L’Européenne dir Beauvais ,Amiens continue to exit/Sortie 22 into Abbeville route d’Amiens or D1001 road around place Charles de Gaulle into City center passing the mairie or City hall on your left hand side at Place Max LeJeune ,past the tourist office into the Collegiate Church of Saint Vulfran, (see post) actually we were going to the beaches to get to Dieppe, but the road warrior in me told me to get by City center Abbeville…..

Other things to see here with more time are considering the town is labeled Country of Art and History, like those who work to highlight their heritage ; see the Saint-Sépulcre Church, rue Saint-Sépulcre, a Gothic collegiate church from the 11C. Since 1993, it has housed thirty-one stained-glass windows. The Notre-Dame de la Chapelle Church, allée du Souvenir Français, with a bell tower and pulpit from the 18C. Also, numerous objects, statues: Christ on the cross (15C), God of Mercy (16C), Saint Nicholas (17C), saint holding a scepter (18C), two bishops forming a pendant (18C), Saint Genevieve and Saint Louis (19C); two church stools (17C); organ case (18C); Paintings: The Holy Family (17C), Virgin (19C), funerary stele (19C) , The Saint-Gilles Church, rue Saint-Gilles, The belfry is one of the oldest in France, built in 1209. On May 20, 1940, during a bombing raid, its roof was damaged and it was not rebuilt until 1986. The belfry is one of the fifty-six belfries in Belgium and France inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005. It has housed the Boucher-de-Perthes Museum since 1954. The Boucher-de-Perthes Museum is located partly in the old 13C belfry. Maillefeu Tower: The Maillefeu Tower is a remnant of the medieval city walls built in 1414. The Château de Bagatelle is a folly built in 1752. Built in 1911, the municipal theater is one of the few in the region to have an Italian-style hall.

A bit of history I like on Abbeville that I like tell us that the Frankish king Dagobert I then granted Riquier part of the Crécy forest, whose hermitage became the abbey of Saint-Riquier: this is the birth certificate of the abbey domain of Abbeville. The first mention of Abbeville dates from 831. Abbot Angilbert is said to have had a castle built there to defend this island which depended on the abbey of Saint-Riquier. In 992, Hugh Capet had the town fortified and gave it to his daughter, Gisèle, upon her marriage to Hugh I, Count of Ponthieu, who was then residing in Montreuil. Abbeville became a port on the English Channel under the control of the abbots of Saint-Riquier. In 1095, Guy I, Count of Ponthieu, founded the Abbey of Saint-Pierre d’Abbeville and on May 24, 1098, he knighted Louis the Fat there. During the First Crusade (1096-1099), Abbeville was the meeting point for the many troops coming from the northern provinces. In the mid-13th century, Abbeville was “one of the good cities of the kings of France.” Its port was one of the leading in the kingdom and its trade was considerable. In 1259, the States-General of the kingdom were held in Abbeville and Henry III of England met there with Louis IX of France to sign the Treaty of Paris which settled the question of the conquests of Philip Augustus. In 1272, Ponthieu, along with Abbeville, passed by marriage to the kings of England, but Philip III the Bold retook the town, claiming that Edward II of England had not fulfilled his duty as a vassal. Edward II having complied with feudal law, Abbeville fell back under English domination. Throughout the Hundred Years’ War, the town was mastered by both the English and the French, causing considerable suffering to the town’s inhabitants. Closely affected by the English expedition of 1346, Abbeville resisted the English armies and served as a home port for Jean Marant, supplying the people of Calais who were besieged by the English. In 1360, it was ceded, along with the County of Ponthieu, of which it was the capital, to the English crown by the Treaty of Brétigny. Charles V’s soldiers seized the town by surprise, but the English recaptured it shortly after, and it remained in their possession until 1385.

Like other Picardy towns, it then came under Burgundian domination after the Battle of Mons-en-Vimeu in 1421. In 1430, Henry VI of England was received in Abbeville. In 1435, the town was ceded to Philip the Good by the Treaty of Arras. Louis XI bought Abbeville from the Duke of Burgundy in 1463 and visited the town on September 27 of the same year. Louis XI failed before Abbeville in 1471, but recovered all of Picardy upon the death of the Duke of Burgundy in 1477. In 1493, Charles VIII visited the town. On October 3, 1514, Louis XII married Mary, daughter of Henry VII of England, in Abbeville. On June 23, 1517, Francis I came to Abbeville with the queen and met Cardinal Wolsey, representing the King of England, with the aim of forming a league against Charles V. The English finally sided with Charles V in 1523 during the Wars of Francis I, and the town suffered greatly from frequent requisitions. In 1531, Francis I made another visit to the town. King Henry II was received there in 1550. During the Wars of Religion, the governor, who was a Protestant, was massacred with his family by the people. On December 18, 1594, King Henry IV of France visited Abbeville. On December 21, 1620, King Louis XIII visited the town. His sister Henriette-Marie came several times. In 1635 and 1636, the town suffered from the war against the Empire and Spain. They destroyed many villages in the surrounding area. Richelieu stayed in the town in October. In 1657, Louis XIV came twice to Abbeville with his mother, Anne of Austria. In 1708, after the capture of Lille, the troops of the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy frequently advanced to the gates of Abbeville, ransoming farms and villages. In 1717, Peter the Great passed through Abbeville.

In 1793, during the French revolution, church furniture, images, and feudal titles were burned in Saint-Pierre Square. The Saint-Vulfran Church became the Temple of Reason. On June 18, 1803, Bonaparte passed through the city for the first time. During the preparations for his planned expedition against England, the First Consul often passed through Abbeville on his way to the camp at Boulogne. In early April, after the Battle of Paris and Napoleon’s abdication, 2,000 Prussian lancers and cuirassiers commanded by General Röder arrived from Paris and the surrounding countryside and committed all sorts of excesses during their stay. On April 27, 1814, Louis XVIII entered the city and was received with great demonstrations of joy. He stayed at the Saint-Pierre Priory. During the first Restoration, many prominent figures and around 10,000 English troops passed through Abbeville on their way back to their country. The Duke of Berry, accompanied by the 10th Cuirassier Regiment and the 108th Line Infantry Regiment, stayed there. On March 21, 1815, King Louis XVIII, on his way into exile, spent the night in the town. After the Battle of Waterloo, the town was once again put on the defensive. Victor Hugo visited Abbeville three times as a tourist, in 1835, starting on July 26 (after staying at L’Écu de Brabant), then on August 4 and 5 (staying at L’Hôtel d’Angleterre), in August and September 1837, arriving from Amiens after having descended the Somme by steamer, and in 1849, leaving the town in the rain on September 11.

During the Great War or WWI, the town was not occupied by German troops. In 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, it housed a military hospital (the 3rd Australian General Hospital). The town was partially destroyed, and the surrounding area bears numerous traces of war, particularly due to the unexploded ordnance that can still be found in the ground. In 1918, the town hosted two Franco-British conferences (the Abbeville Conferences): the one on March 25, between Field Marshal Haig and Generals Wilson and Foch, prepared the Doullens Conference. During the second, on May 2, Foch claimed authority over the Italian front but only obtained coordinating power. During WWII, the town was again largely destroyed by nazis and British bombing, razing the old timber-framed houses with corbelled ceilings. On September 12, 1939, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland, a conference between France and the United Kingdom was held in Abbeville. They decided that it was too late to send troops to help Poland in its fight against Germany. On May 20, 1940, the Abbeville Massacre took place. The town was captured by the nazis of the 2nd Panzer Division of Generalmajor Rudolf Veiel. In 1940, Abbeville was the scene of a vigorous counterattack by French (commanded by Colonel de Gaulle) and British tanks. The nazis had to retreat 5 km. Abbeville was liberated in September 1944 by the 1st Polish Armoured Division of General Maczek, which entered through the suburb of Rouvroy.

The City of Abbeville on its heritage : https://www.abbeville.fr/decouvrir-abbeville/patrimoine-et-monuments/grands-monuments/

The local Bay of the Somme tourist office on the heritage of Abbeville : https://www.tourisme-baiedesomme.fr/en/organize/things-to-see-and-do/visitor-sites/irisit/commune/abbeville/

There you go folks, a wonderful visit to a nice town of Abbeville,worth a detour indeed, Again, hope you enjoy the post on this is Abbeville !!! as I.

And remember, happy travels , good Health, and many cheers to all !!!