20 July 2020

Amiens, il y a déjà dix ans

Ten years ago this week, I was up in Picardy, north of Paris, with CHM. He wanted to take some things from his apartment in Paris to the museum in Péronne, the town his grandfather, a 19th century painter, came from. Charles-Henri Michel was born in 1817 and died in 1905. I'm going to post some photos from that trip over the next week or two.


One of the most memorable places we visited in July 2010 was the city of Amiens, which is about 70 miles north of Paris and 35 miles from the France's northern coast on the English Channel. Amiens is especially well known for its cathedral, which is one of the biggest and most beautiful in France. It was built over a period of about 70 years starting in the year 1220. The north tower, on the left, stands nearly 70 meters (about 225 feet) tall — the same height as the towers of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. As usual, you can click on the photos, or "unpinch" them on a tablet, to see them in more detail.


I took a lot of photos inside and from outside the cathedral. Here's one detail shot. I've got more... Walt and I were scheduled to take a trip to Amiens and the nearby Baie de Somme region this past April, but the coronavirus pandemic and French lockdown forced us to cancel. It will be a trip for another day, I hope.

14 comments:

  1. This is really beautiful, but don't you mean ten years ago? I would love to see this cathedral someday, but since I doubt that will ever happen, I appreciate your photographs.

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    1. My fingers, when typing, have a mind of their own. Corrected.

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  2. Beautiful cathedral, with the royal figures on the facade still intact. Is this the west front that Monet painted or am I confusing churches?

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    1. Monet painted the façade of the cathedral in Rouen many, many times, in different seasons and different light conditions.

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  3. I'm looking forward to see more photos of that trip.

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  4. I remember your posts about that trip so well. And I had been reading your blog for quite some time before that. I often wonder how long I've been following your daily entries. Now I know it's over a decade, maybe 14 years? All you have had to say and show has always been so interesting. Thank you for the time and effort you put into informing and entertaining us each day,

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    1. I started blogging in October2005, so 14 years is possible. As I've recently gone back, pandémie oblige, to posts from 10 to 15 years ago and read through comments back then, I've noticed that most of them are now listed as being from Anonymous. Names like yours have been wiped away. Who knows why — thanks, Blogger! Thus, I have no record by which to date your earliest comments.

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    2. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe the first post I read may have been the year you and Walt were harvesting your first potager. I remember great success with bell peppers.

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    3. We had our first vegetable garden in the summer of 2004, and we successfully grew bell peppers. I remember, because my mother and her sister visited in September. My aunt asked me to make stuffed peppers, so I did. Then at the table, she cut away the red pepper and just ate the filling. She said she didn't really like the pepper, but she loved the stuffing! Seemed like a waste to me. We had our second garden in 2005, and my mother came for a three-week visit in September. Because of allergies, she couldn't eat peppers (or tomatoes or apples, for example). I don't remember if we grew peppers that year. I can't find any photos of peppers. I didn't start blogging until October of 2005.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thaks, BA. Hope you are well over there in Flah-dee-dah. Did you know I had Lakeland connections and often spent time there in the 1970s. Walt used to have family in Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando, so he knows the area too.

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    2. We are well, thank you but don’t get me started on the current situation in Crazy Land! I think I knew you had a connection to Florida but I don’t think I knew the city. As many times as we have driven from Clearwater to Orlando, we have never stopped in Lakeland. I’ve read about a lovely botanical garden there so it is on my list whenever we feel comfortable going out again.

      Reading your blog is the first thing I do every day. Thank you.

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  6. From the people at the bottom of it, you can judge the enormity of this cathedral! It IS huge!

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  7. Off topic, Ken. I just looked at the picture of the Marguerite bread from yesterday’s post. Is that regular bread dough in bun size pieces touching each other like the sandwich buns you made? I really like the look of it.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?