cockney tone Posted 29 January , 2007 Share Posted 29 January , 2007 Ladies & Gents, Pal's, planning a trip for later in the year and staying a day & night in the Amiens area (Express by Holiday Inn, not my choice! hope its ok) Not been to Amiens for years, so I thought I would pick your collective brains for any 'fings' of interest please, mainly war related please but any general historic stuff would be appreciated, including watering holes, places to dine, pleasant walks before dinner etc etc. Thanks in advance, Regards, Scottie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 30 January , 2007 Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Hello Scottie Whilst taking a look at the British / French cemetery of St Pierre Rivery [East Amiens], about 500 yards away you will see the Amiens Prison that was bombed by the Allies in 1944 - enabled POW's who knew about the plans for the D-Day landings to escape, some got as far as Longueval on the old Somme battlefield Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisC Posted 30 January , 2007 Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Pleasant walks through the hortillonages area and the "old" town over the river from the Cathedral, which is itself well worth a look particularly if they're doing a son et lumiere show like last time I was there. Several excellent eating places along the right hand side of the Cathedral as you lo Pleasant walks through the hortillonages area and the "old" town over the river from the Cathedral, which is itself well worth a look particularly if they're doing a son et lumiere show like last time I was there. Several excellent eating places along the right hand side of the Cathedral as you look at the front - also across the river. Chris C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 30 January , 2007 Share Posted 30 January , 2007 If you go to the Cathedral have a look at the pillars nearest the entrance. There are a lot of memorials on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockney tone Posted 30 January , 2007 Author Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Andy, Chris & Burlington, thanks for your replies and tips, I had heard the old town was nice, also was going to stop at the prison if i could locate it (is it still a prison?) as i understand it that the planes that carried out the operation took off just up the road from me in Hunsdon! Cheers and regards, Scottie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havrincourt Posted 30 January , 2007 Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Hello Scottie Even my short hairy legs made this little walk...... The Cemetery has it's gate closed at 5pm? , the wall on the prison has a stone plaque at the spot where the wall was broken! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salientguide Posted 30 January , 2007 Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Hi Scottie sampled the delights of Amiens in July with the Brum WFA trip. The hortillonage(?spelling) area of water gardens was highly recommended by members as a pleasant and interesting walk. The cathedral very grand and lots of interesting and much overlooked memorials on the pillars as mentioned. Good riverside eating area by the cathedral but will it be warm enough outside. We ate there, the waiters pretended not to speak english at first no problem schoolboy Frenglish to the rescue and they unbent considerably after that. I found the food rather noveau cuisine, not a lot of it garnished with a leaf or two and a sauce. A friend made the mistake of going for the speciality "saus-age",- something approximating a boiled, grissly, horses pizzle was served up, nothing like a Walls banger at all. otherwise the city centre was like a ...city centre..lots of shops, imteresting and several good cafes. pick your restaurant carefully especially if after a square meal would be my advice. have a look around and then shoot off Albertwise asap. Cheers SG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockney tone Posted 30 January , 2007 Author Share Posted 30 January , 2007 Andy, excellent picture, even I might be able to locate it now! thank you very much. had a look on the web and found a couple of good period photos of the breach in the walls of the prison, plus there is apparently a good book on the raid that I will have to track down 'And the walls came tumbling down' by Jack Fishman. Just noticed you are from 'Tad', we have friends in Clifford, (So what I hear you cry!) Chris, as you know I normally like to go local on my travels but perhaps I will give the sauso's a miss! think i will try to head for the Hortillonge area and the riverside for my meal but will definatley take in the Cathedral. thanks for the warning on the Town Centre, "I don't do shop's" unless its a nice little chocolate establishment in Ypres! Regards and thanks again Gent's, Cheers, Scottie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockney tone Posted 2 March , 2007 Author Share Posted 2 March , 2007 Pal's, just bringing this to the top again seeking more info please. Just been reading an account of the WW2 raid on Amiens prison prior to visting the town, a large number of escapees from the prison apparently hid in medieaval caves in the area, any Pal's know if they can be visited please? If so is it worth a look? Regards, Scottie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelab Posted 3 March , 2007 Share Posted 3 March , 2007 That could perhaps be the cave system at Naours, about 15km north of Amiens. Fascinating tour through them. I think they were used as an Allied hospital during WW1 (maybe by Australians?), but I seem to remember that the Germans were using them during WW2. The Hortillonnages is a boat trip - or was when I visited. It's a lovely ride by electric boat through the waterways that links the old market gardens. Most of the gardens coming down to the bank are private houses now - which makes me wonder if it might not be inaccessible to walkers. Well worth doing by boat though. The son-et-lumiere-style lighting of the front of the cathedral is only in July and August, and then again in late December. It's fantastic, if you have a chance to get there. Inside the cathedral there are quite a lot of WW1 memorials about halfway down, on the right. I didn't find anywhere brilliant to eat, but I would have thought a promising one for size of portions might be the steakhouse-type place called "Bouchées Doubles" (double mouthfuls!), which is south of the Hotel de Ville (town hall). Really good place is supposed to be the Brasserie Jules, north of the station. One of the specialities of Amiens is the "macaron", delicious almond-and-honey macaroon-style sweets. They are on sale at a shop on the cathedral square, I think called Jean Trogneux. Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockney tone Posted 3 March , 2007 Author Share Posted 3 March , 2007 Angela, not sure if they are the same, as in the book I am reading it calls them the St Pierre Caves and I got the feeling they were nearer to Amiens. Thanks for the other tips, especially the culinary ones, a boat trip sounds interesting as the water ways get a mention in the book as well as a number of escapees from the prison raid were spirited out of Amiens in boats attending the floating market. The Cathederal sounds well worth a visit as well, regards, Scottie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelab Posted 3 March , 2007 Share Posted 3 March , 2007 Scottie, I just tried googling "souterrains" and "amiens", and found this site on all the underground systems in the Somme! Nothing called St-Pierre actually in Amiens though. There is a park in Amiens called "Parc St-Pierre" - don't know if that is a likely candidate. The boats that take you through the Hortillonnages are the traditional ones, as formerly used by market gardeners. The floating market is recreated on one day in the summer - sorry, can't remember when, but the tourist office at Amiens would surely tell you. Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montbrehain Posted 3 March , 2007 Share Posted 3 March , 2007 Hello Scottie Even my short hairy legs made this little walk...... The Cemetery has it's gate closed at 5pm? , the wall on the prison has a stone plaque at the spot where the wall was broken! Andy Andy , Surely this is St Pierre Cemetery and not Rivery ? A mate of mine from Perth WA has a Relation buried there. We visited a couple of years ago . He was the first member of his family to ever visit. The relation was his Grandmothers Brother , a stretcher bearer with the AIF. Wounded At VB. His name is John Cox. I would ask anybody visiting the cemetery to please pay their respects to him. ( for my mate and me ) Cheers "MO" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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